


Avoiding Eddie

by MarieMaea



Series: How To Train Your Omega [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Bonding, Eventual Happy Ending, Hiding in Plain Sight, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Possessive Alphas, Shapeshifting, So many tropes, Tropes, creepy alphas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:27:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25707397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarieMaea/pseuds/MarieMaea
Summary: Al just didn't want to get kidnapped. As it turns out, that's way harder than it should be.Note from the author for readers who filter by completed works and only wish to read complete stories: This part of the series is complete, but the entire story is not. I don't want anyone starting to read an incomplete work without knowing what they're in for :)
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: How To Train Your Omega [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864426
Comments: 356
Kudos: 347





	1. Step One: Put A Condom On A Banana

**Author's Note:**

> So, uh, because someone tried to do name changes and pretend my other fic was a BTS fanfic, I wound up with a twitter account full of hawt Korean boys. So feel free to follow me there @mariemaea. I might actually use it one day.
> 
> How To Train Your Omega is the fucking-with-tropes fic that nobody asked for. In this work, I've shoved in as many different tropes with weird twists to them as I could manage. As a result, it is an absolute clusterfuck and I'm sorry in advance. 
> 
> This fic is heavily inspired by the myriad of A/B/O fics out there featuring similar themes (Lirim comes to mind, as do all those soulmate mark fics where dude A catches a glimpse of dude B's birthmark and goes ballistic), but it's also an attempt to challenge myself with a billion different fic tropes and still try to make the thing unpredictable. (tropes, guys, seriously, they're everywhere)
> 
> Avoiding Eddie is part one, and primarily a scene-setter. Settle in for a long haul, folks, 'cause part one is short but part two isn't.

Like everyone else on the planet, Al thought that putting a condom on a banana in the seventh grade was simultaneously mortifying and hilarious.

When they had to do it again in eighth just in case anyone missed that health class last year, Al understood. Al thought that STDs sounded mortifying and not hilarious. Al placed an extremely high priority on having a healthy penis, thanks.

Like everyone else, Al wondered _why_ they had to take the gender studies course. Only two percent of the population were Alphas or Omegas, and they tended to breed true, so the chances of anyone without Alpha or Omega parentage completely blowing the genetic lottery and being one was negligible.

Al sat through it with his classmates. Every year their weird Phys. Ed. teacher went into more and more detail. Like everyone else, Al tuned out, except for the hilarious bits.

Like _knotting_. Holy _fuck_ , what a shitstorm that must be for those poor fuckers - but it couldn't possibly be worse for them than it was for poor Mr. Simson, who had to stand up there in front of a class of thirty eighth graders and explain it.

Al was like everyone else. He was unique, sure, but everyone is unique, so whatever. He liked riding his bike, he liked computer games, and he hated the captain of the soccer team, Leo, who was exactly as much of a hot douche as his name implied. Al loved the captain of the swim team, because she was hot, sure, but once he had manned up and found the guts to talk to her, he realised that she was a wonderful person. Absolutely everyone agreed about this. There were six other kids in his class alone that were in love with Larissa. She was hot, smart, funny, confident and well-adjusted. She was a unicorn.

Al's crush on Larissa was precisely the same as everyone else's, so ... _normal_.

According to Al's mum, it was okay to be normal, even though she didn't agree, she thought he was very special (like every other mum on the planet thought about their kids, so thanks, Mum, for making everything even _more_ normal).

Al's life was normal, as was his school, hobbies, crushes and friends. Al's teachers were mostly normal. Mr Simson was a weird douche and their principal was creepy, but having nothing but normal teachers would be abnormal, so the whole thing rounded out well.

Al's parents were normal. His mum was annoying but loving, and his dad never really talked to him or hugged him, so Al was almost certain that he thought Al was a massive disappointment, but hey, _that's normal_. Al was not getting beaten up by his dad like his friend Joey was, so life was pretty good.

Then ninth grade hit, and the usual Phys. Ed. health class showed up where they got lectured on safe sex. Then they had to mourn the loss of the banana as it was replaced by a somewhat realistic dildo. Anatomy was important, apparently.

Al was past mortification now, and just found it all hilarious.

The next week, the gender studies session happened, and it was all much more serious. "You're starting to reach an age where an Alpha might mistake you for an adult," Mr Simson said, and everyone was insulted.

_Mistake?_ What a dick. Al was totally an adult, thank you very much.

"If you encounter an Alpha - you probably already have, you just didn't realise it - you have to follow their rules. The Ancient Houses have very strict codes about respect and honour and whatnot, and if you're not very careful, you can offend them _badly_. I can't stress enough how important this is. They'd never take it out on a child, but if they see you as an adult, you could accidentally challenge one, and that's exactly what you'd expect out of a medieval movie," Mr Simson was saying.

"What, like, a challenge to the death?" Al asked, because, _what the fuck_?

Mr Simson looked at him and nodded slowly, not even bothering to chastise him for not putting his hand up.

"But they can't just fight people to the death," Larissa said. "They'd go to jail."

"Well, sure," Mr Simson said. "Except that Alphas can use their voices to command people. Say they use that on a jury. Say they use that on the witnesses."

"Surely that's illegal too," Larissa said.

"Good luck proving they did it," Mr Simson said.

"I thought they could only tell Omegas what to do," Joey said.

"Omegas are susceptible - they'll bend over backwards to do what an Alpha says," Mr Simson confirmed. "But Betas - that's us - we've got a different range. Sometimes we'll be influenced. Sometimes we won't. We're influenced often enough that the Ancient Houses have a lot of power. They're richer than anyone should have a right to be, and they're politicians more often than not. They can command, and they feel entitled to. They leave us alone, to a point, until we do something that bothers them. Then they talk their way in and change our laws. They're protected. They're allowed to get away with _kidnapping_."

Al had heard the stories of young men and women, spirited away, all because they smelled good. "So that actually happens?" Al asked.

Mr Simson nodded. "I'm not supposed to call it kidnapping," he said gruffly. "But if they wanted someone to sugar-coat this and lie to you, they shouldn't keep making me do it. The Ancient Houses and the law call it _involuntary scenting_. They say they get a whiff of an Omega and they lose control. They then have to take that poor kid back to their place, on instinct, like a knee-jerk reaction. Personally, I think it’s insane."

"That _is_ insane!" Larissa said, which was weird, because one of the reasons everyone loved her was that she never agreed with Mr Simson. She would just roll her eyes, do her own thing, and win all her swim races anyway.

She was _gorgeous_ in a swimsuit. She was gorgeous all the time, though. Al genuinely believed that she would look good in a hessian sack.

"Look," Mr Simson said, in a serious, gruff voice that the class was not used to. "The chances of any of you having to deal with anyone from an Ancient House is slim to none. If you ever do, it'd be in the workplace, and there are crash courses that HR would make you take first, to cover their own asses - whoops, forget I said that, kids - and any Alpha that is actually out and about with us measly Betas usually has some idea of how different our worlds are. If you meet one in a mall, you'll be fine, just don't do anything stupid. If you meet one because you're working a job and you're at their house, you'll need to follow their laws, because they're insular, and they might never have seen a mall in their life."

"So, they're stuck in the dark ages," Larissa said.

"Honestly, it sure seems like it," Mr Simson said.

"What if one of us is an Omega? Or an Alpha?" Joey asked.

Mr Simson cleared his throat. "And here's the uncomfortable bit," he said to himself. "It's _rare_. But it does happen. From Beta parents, you get about twenty Omegas to one Alpha - it's not one to one, like male to female - so if you present, you're a whole lot more likely to present Omega than Alpha. You present, but before you even know you've presented, you'll be making pheromones that they can smell, and any time between five PM and six AM they're allowed to snatch you if they can smell you."

"What ... the ... fuck?" Larissa said.

Mr Simson pretended not to hear her and let her get away with it. This was the closest Al had ever been to actually liking the guy.

"So, the first you know about it, is that you've been kidnapped?" Joey asked.

Mr Simon smiled. "Luckily, there's tests," he said. "You're all still young. You can present anywhere between sixteen and twenty. Now, everyone gets to take one of these tests home - take it home, _do not do it here_. If you're caught doing it here, you will be suspended. If you tell one of your friends your results, you'll be suspended. Omegas stay safe by living in secrecy. You don't ask anyone about it, you don't tell anyone about it. Take the info packs home. Test yourselves. _Tell_ your parents - don't ask them, _tell them_ to take you to your family doctor, one you trust. Take those tests too. The blood tests are more accurate. If you're an Omega, the instructions for keeping your smell to yourself are in the pack with your tests."

"What if you're an Alpha?" Leo asked.

"Like _you'd_ be an Alpha," Joey said.

"Says you, dumbass," Leo snapped.

"None of that," Mr Simson said. "If you're an Alpha, life pretty much goes on as usual. You would probably already know, though. You'd eat more than your friends, you'd be bigger, stronger, faster. People - even adults - would sometimes do as you told them to. Usually when an Alpha goes through the school system, the teachers all know it. I think they're the epitome of the phrase 'behavioural issues'."

"So it _is_ Leo, then," Joey said.

Leo only seemed to take that as a compliment. It wasn't fair, really, that he had such a nice toothy smile.

It also wasn't fair that Al had two crushes at once. But he was in high school, and in high school love wasn't fair to anyone.

Take Leo, for example. Leo liked Larissa, but Larissa would never date him, because he was an asshole, and Larissa had taste.

"Can you tell if you're teaching an Omega?" Al asked.

Mr Simson shook his head. "The Ancient Houses portray Omegas as having a certain way about them. Submissive, sweet, mothering. Honestly, if you ever want to make yourself sick, go to a library and read one of their classic romances. It's enough to make a feminist puke. But honestly? _No_. It's trash. There's not a single one of you that's more Omega-ish than the others. It could be anyone. Not that I'd ever know, until you disappeared. You'd never tell me, and you ruddy well shouldn't."

Al went home that day, played his computer while he should have been doing homework, and received a text from Larissa just before dinner.

_Good news, I'm not going to get kidnapped._

He sent her three thumbs up and a heart emoji, then he got really worried that she'd overthink that heart emoji.

Then he ripped open the information pack, thumbed through the leaflet on Omega-specific _weirdness_ which was all completely terrifying, and took the little jar and test strip into the bathroom, because hey, why the fuck not, he had to take a slash anyway.

Suddenly, Al wasn't just like everyone else anymore.


	2. Step Two: Come Out Of The Closet

Al had always been good at what his mum called 'self-study'. When he felt like it, he could get on the internet and lose himself down a rabbit hole of information. Sometimes he was quite smart, but sometimes he was too lazy to bother.

On this subject, however, it was a matter of life and death. Laziness wasn't a factor.

Everyone sugar-coated it as much as they could, but once he knew what he was reading, he saw right through it all. Involuntary scenting was just code for kidnapping, bonding was code for Stockholm Syndrome, and _heat_ was code for _rape_.

Once further down the rabbit hole, he started to reach dissenting opinions. One blogger called out for funding for protected housing.

_We can't hold a job, they sniff us out. We can't live in the same place for long, they sniff us out. We send our parents bankrupt by moving, and we all end up on the street, or we get kicked out, or we run away. The homeless shelters don't offer us a scent-protected room at twilight. We have nowhere to go._

_\- Bella, Omega, obviously not my real name_

_It's ridiculous, honestly. They want special shelters? That's what the Omega Houses are. We've already got them._

_\- Joseph Hale, Senator_

Al looked up Omega Houses. 'Omega House' was code for 'slave market'. An Omega only got in if they planned on letting an Alpha buy them, or if they could afford the exorbitant fees for hiring a scent-proof room. Those fees would send anyone bankrupt, let alone a young person with nowhere to go.

Al looked up Joseph Hale. He was an Alpha. There were Alphas all through politics, but not even one Omega. Society was totally corrupt, and Al was seriously depressed before his first two hours of reading were up.

He didn't tell his parents. They would find out one way or another. One of the first things Al learned was that he wasn't going to come out of this un-kidnapped. His parents would definitely notice that - even his absentee dad.

_They'll catch you eventually, all you can do is delay it. Live as much as you can, learn as much as you can. Try to last until you're at least twenty-five. That's when your fertility starts to tank._

It wasn't surprising when people started to catch on. No one picked up on the Omega thing, but everyone picked up on Al being in a funk.

Mum was the worst.

"Honey, you know you can talk to me, right?"

"I love you. Unconditionally. Okay?"

"Everything will work out, sweetie."

"Is this about your dad again? Sweetie, he loves you. He's just quiet. That's what he's like. I keep telling him he doesn't hug you enough. This wouldn't be an issue if he just _hugged_ you every now and then."

"Please, honey, _please_."

"Is it something _I've_ done?"

"What if I organised - I mean, I don't think you _need_ \- but I mean, if you _want_ to, honey, I could find you someone else to talk to. Like - "

"You want me to see a therapist?" Al asked.

Mum shrugged. "There would be nothing wrong with that," she said fiercely. "And I'd support you one hundred percent, honey."

Al thought about confidentiality. Therapists weren't allowed to tell, right? They couldn't tell people what their patients said.

He Googled it.

_Therapists often work closely with doctors, and the medical field is full of Alphas. You might have luck with a social worker instead, but take care, because they're often underpaid, and there's money in giving up our locations._

_-Alli_

_Alli, are you still around? I haven't heard from you in ages._

_-Bella_

_Alli, love you._

_-Bella_

_Alli, if your Alpha ever lets you on a computer (lol sif), know that I love you. I've got nowhere to go. I'll be in a House tonight. I hope you're ok._

_-Bella_

No therapy, then, which kind of sucked, because Al was pretty sure it would have been good for him.

It took a month for Al's father to step in.

Al had been lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, when Dad came into his bedroom and sat down on the bed. He didn't say anything for a good minute and a half - Al counted.

Al found it helped a lot to count when Dad was around. Not because there was anything too stressful about it, but because Dad often said nothing at all, so he was usually boring. Counting made it a game where Al could keep high scores of their awkward silences.

Dad looked at his computer, then at Al, then back at Al's computer, then he stood up and sat back down again at Al's desk. Dad tapped the spacebar to wake the computer from sleep, and Al froze.

When Al was seven, Dad had introduced him to games. It had been kid games, back then, and it was a fond memory. His Dad didn't really play much, it had just been something to do on a rainy weekend every now and then when Mum was too busy to watch over Al.

Al's computer-literate father was sitting at his desk, on his computer, and nothing was password protected, because why would Al bother? Mum was always talking about _privacy_ and _trust_ and _privileges_ , and she actually followed through on that stuff. She knocked on his door when she wanted to talk to him. The first time Joey had seen Mum knock on Al's door, he'd nearly had a coronary, he'd been so jealous.

Dad never talked though, so Al had thought that he probably didn't give a shit. Al didn't bother with passwords for his computer when it slept, because no one ever touched his computer except himself. The machine needed a password to turn on, of course - Al wasn't a complete psychopath- but it had only been sleeping.

Dad was going to find stuff - _sordid_ stuff - not just the Omega stuff in Al's browser history, but the tab in his browser that wasn't active right now but was right next to the active tab and contained _gay fucking porn_.

Dad either didn't see the porn tab or didn't care. He used the windows key to access the start menu, typed 'Steam', and let the program open. Then he went straight into Al's profile page and looked at it. Al had no idea what he was looking for. There was a decent amount of information on that page, from gaming stats to friends lists to achievements.

Dad stood back up and sat down on the bed again. Al shifted his legs to give him room, grateful that Dad was off the computer, but confused as to why he'd been on it in the first place.

"Either you're playing a game that's not on Steam, or you've only played games for three hours in the last two weeks," Dad said, looking at his own hands.

Al didn't know what to say. First - either his Dad knew enough about Steam to know how to bring up his hours played, in which case, why weren't they Steam friends? Or maybe Dad had _researched_ this, which meant that he _cared_.

Second - why did Dad care? He never usually did. What did Al's Steam activity matter?

"You're not riding your bike either," Dad said. "You go to your room straight after dinner, and it's not to play games, apparently. You skipped Clarissa's party and you're getting up later and later. Your homework's not getting done. Your teachers have called your mother to tell her you don't participate in class."

Oh, so this was a schoolwork lecture. Al had never actually had one of these from Dad before.

Neat.

"Alfred," Dad said, staring awkwardly at his hands. "You're depressed. I don't know why, and I don't think you'll tell me. Your mother says we can't just force you to see a therapist. I'm here to tell you that your mother is wrong."

There was an awkward pause of fifty-seven seconds - Al counted them. He didn't know what changed at fifty-seven, but suddenly he couldn't stand it anymore.

"I'm bisexual," he blurted.

Dad took a deep breath, held it, then released it. "All right," he said.

Another pause. Twenty seconds.

"Is there someone in your life that's homophobic?" Dad asked. He left the ' _because I'm not_ ' unsaid, just like most things that he left unsaid that really needed to be said. "Bullies? That Leo kid, from the soccer team. I never liked him."

"I've got a crush on that Leo kid from the soccer team," Al said.

Dad's fingers flexed as the conversation got even more awkward. "That sounds painful for you," Dad said. He wasn't wrong.

"But you don't care?"

"I'm absolutely certain you could do better than Leo, but I'll leave that up to you," Dad said.

Al counted forty-six seconds of silence.

"Good talk," Al said.

Dad chuckled. "This isn't enough," he said. "You being bisexual isn't enough for this kind of reaction. Not when your mother keeps saying she loves you unconditionally."

" _You_ don't."

Dad frowned. "Okay," he said. "I love you unconditionally."

That had been so easy. Al wondered why it had taken so long. He fell to tears, right there on his back in bed.

Dad didn't move for some time, then he took a deep, awkward breath. "Is this one of the times your mother talks about where I'm supposed to hug you?"

Al nodded. He couldn't do much else, he was too busy doing the kind of crying they never show in movies - the ugly stuff, where breathing is impossible, your lungs hurt, and your cheeks hurt from tension. He was giving himself a headache from how hard his brow was furrowed.

Dad didn't hug him. It would have been impossible. Al was on his back in bed, and he couldn't even breathe, let alone sit up. Dad lay beside him, shoulder to shoulder, squished between Al and the wall in Al's single bed.

After a while, Al managed to roll over and put his head on his Dad's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said. "I've been scaring Mum."

"A bit, yeah," Dad said.

They lay there for a while, until they heard Mum's car pull up in the drive. Al didn’t count the seconds.

"You gonna tell me what this is actually about? Because you're not having a crisis over being bisexual. Did you think I'd hate you? Was this about me?"

Al shook his head. The front door opened. "Chips for dinner!" Mum called.

"Not gonna tell me then," Dad said. "Okay. You'll tell a therapist instead, and that's fine. You don't have to tell me anything. Unconditional, all right?"

"I'm an Omega," Al said.

"Oh," Dad said.

They had chips for dinner. The chips made it marginally better.

Mum didn't say anything at Al's blotchy face. She didn't even say anything when Dad got out his most ancient games console from the garage, plugged it into the TV and sat Al down with a controller.

Al played Ocarina of Time mindlessly for about three hours while his parents talked in the kitchen.

The only part of it that Al overheard was when Dad told Mum that he was bi. "You're not seriously telling me you didn't know that," was Mum's reply, followed by a long laugh at Dad's expense.

Al hadn't told her. He had figured that he didn't need to. He was glad he'd gotten that right, at least.

Dad never said "I love you," to Al ever again. He said "Unconditional, all right?" all the time, though, and very occasionally, there were hugs.


	3. Step Three: See A Doctor

Al told Larissa.

"Oh, fuck," she said, and then behaved exactly how Al expected her to - like a really good friend. They talked, they cried, and they got angry and threw rocks at trees in the park.

Al upgraded her from crush status to soulmate status. He knew he'd never get to have her, though, even if she liked him back (hah, as if).

She was perfect in every single way, and Al would miss her when he was taken. He would miss his Mum, and his Dad, and Joey. He wouldn't miss Leo. The only good thing about Leo was his body and his face, and Al could imagine those just fine.

Al went with his mum to a doctor in the city, armed with a contract they'd gotten from a lawyer who gave them out on his website, for nothing but the promise that if the contract was broken he got a percentage of the payout.

Al was happy enough with the idea that if his new doctor sold him out, his parents would get everything the doctor owned, and then all the patient confidentiality stuff would ruin his career.

The doctor looked at the contract, shrugged, and said, "You famous or something?" to Mum. Then he signed away, like it was nothing. "Patient confidentiality is just par for the course, to me," he said, shrugging again.

"I took a test the school gave me, and it said I'm an Omega," Al said.

The doctor shrugged a lot. He shrugged when he wrote out blood tests, he shrugged when he gave advice.

"So, we don't send Omega tests to pathology anymore, on account of pathologists selling their medical numbers on to people in records, then people in records find the names and addresses. Luckily, we can do it with a drop test, like what diabetics do. I'll need your finger. This will sting a bit."

Al handed over his finger, got pricked suddenly by a little machine, and then the doctor confirmed it. "Yep, you are," he said. "The good news is that there's very little this will do to your health - there aren't really any health risks associated with the secondary genders. Well, Alphas struggle with keeping weight on, I suppose. Their bodies prioritise muscle maintenance pretty heavily. They get sick, bam, all the fat's gone."

The doctor shrugged, then looked a little uncomfortable, realising that wasn't very relevant.

"You'll need to be aware of a few things - you're _very_ likely to miscarry, but until you're around twenty-seven you are hyper fertile. Any heat is almost guaranteed to get you pregnant, and that's assuming you're not pregnant before the heat. There are pills that you can take after sex, and that's probably your most effective contraception.”

Al wondered what the likelihood of being allowed any of those pills would be when an Alpha caught him. He expected it wouldn’t be high.

"Heats - you'll go, uh, sex crazy. Specifically, penetration crazy. The good news is you won't really be that coherent. It's all very instinctual, and you'll just sort of drop into it and do it, kind of like how you instinctively just go and open the fridge for no reason. You will remember it unless you find it extremely traumatic and block it out.

"There _is_ some misinformation around the place," the doctor said, after a pause. "Specifically about twilight scenting. A lot of people call it kidnapping, and it _is_ , but only for you. For the Alpha, it's a very different thing. For a kidnapping, there has to be intent. Alphas don't actually have control over their actions when they scent out a twilight pheromone. That being said, the right thing to do would be to make it easier for you to avoid them at twilight, right? Laws, safe zones, I don't know, some sort of curfew? Just because it isn't their fault doesn't mean they're going about it right."

"So you're saying they actually do lose control and kidnap people involuntarily?" Al asked dubiously.

"Oh, it's fascinating behaviourally," the doctor said, shrugging. "It's not that they want to kidnap you, it's that they're territorial. The pheromones make them want to _bond_ you, but once they've bonded you they're agitated and out of control, so they want to go home and protect their nest, like any territorial animal, but they've bonded you and they want to protect their mate, too. They can't do both unless you're in the same place, and nests don't usually move easy, so they move you."

Al frowned.

"In the end, that still results in Al getting kidnapped," Mum said.

"Oh, yes, absolutely," the doctor said. "But it's very important for an Omega to _understand_ Alphas. Understanding them is how you avoid them, and if that fails, understanding them is how you'd survive being bonded to one. You'll never beat them on strength. You can win by appealing to their natures. They want to control and protect. If they think the situation is all under control, they tend to calm down."

"I don't _want_ to be under anyone's control," Al said quietly.

No one had anything to say to that. Mum held Al's hand.

The doctor shrugged, his face impassive. He cleared his throat, then he shrugged again. "You'll present sometime before you're twenty," he said. "That will be like a mini-heat. It lasts about an hour, two, tops. If it lasts any longer, you have a serious hormonal imbalance and need to see me immediately."

"What do we have to do to prepare for this?" Mum asked.

"He'll need a quiet, _private_ place," the doctor said. "Any siblings?"

"No," Mum said.

"That's good. Under no circumstance should he ever share a bedroom."

Al's face turned scarlet. Mum's did too.

"Get in the habit of keeping water by the bed. You'll need it after heats, and even the presentation. Collect things from your parents that they wear often - unwashed shirts are best. You'll want them during the heat, and if you don't have them you will seek them out, maybe even going so far as to leave the house to find them. It can be helpful to be locked into the bedroom so that you don't do anything stupid while you're unaware."

The mortification Al felt was far worse than the mortification about the banana and the condom in Sex Ed, and they hadn't even brought up sex yet. Al didn't know specifics, but he knew what _heat_ generally meant.

The doctor didn't bring it up. "This is a good book," he said, writing down a name in handwriting that was exactly as legible as one might expect from a doctor. "There's a good leaflet here too," he said, wheeling around in his chair and rifling through a gigantic bureau stuffed full of leaflets, medication trial packs, and miscellany.

The leaflet he handed Al was almost a book. _'Your first heat,'_ read the cover. On the front was a picture of a young, smiling girl wearing a heart-shaped necklace. Al wanted to vomit.

"Oh, actually, here's another," the doctor said, and put another, smaller leaflet next to the first.

_'How to care for an Alpha,'_ it read. Pictured was a surly, angry looking boy with his arms folded across his chest.

Al picked it up and stared at it. "I don't _want_ to care for an Alpha," he said.

"That's not aimed at you," the doctor said. "It's aimed at the poor sods who are their parents. It’s rare, of course, that an Alpha is born to Betas, but it can happen, and they're a handful when they're children."

Al opened the first page.

_So your child is an Alpha, and suddenly things make sense. You've heard them called all sorts of hurtful things by now - oppositional, defiant, problematic, maybe even violent or bully. But now you're hearing Alpha._

_You've seen your child grow up full of harsh feelings and temper. But it doesn't have to be this way._

The doctor was talking again. Mum had asked something, and Al had missed it while reading.

"Best case scenario, he'll find an Alpha he likes. Might even find one of the rare ones born to Beta parents. Medium case, he doesn't, and he gets overwhelmed enough to go to an Omega House. He can make stipulations there about his treatment when he's bonded, though they might not listen to them. The worst case is he's scented. Most Alphas that scent are doing it because they're out _looking_ for an Omega to have without any limits or contracts. In an Omega House, there are contracts. Go there first."

"They'd still be _buying_ me. Like a slave," Al said.

"Look," the doctor said strongly. "You have every right to hate everything about this. But when we talk about your future, the only thing we have left to talk about are lesser evils. You'll have to decide whether you want to be bought by an Alpha who thinks you have some value and is willing to pay it, or whether you want to stay unbonded with your family and freedom, and all the while risk being kidnapped by an Alpha who doesn't think you're even worth the money. There aren't any good options. I can't make a recommendation to you. This isn't a disease I can treat. This is chronic. It's a gender - it's _worse_ than a gender. It's in your entire physical makeup. We don't have any hormone therapies, there's no surgical options, there's no pills. I've got plenty of medications that will make it _worse_ , but nothing that will make it better. At this point, every decision you make is about your quality of life going forward. Will you be happier if you risk getting nabbed? I don't know. Maybe. Will you be happier if you let someone buy you like you're a slave? I don't know. It's not my decision."

Al broke down in tears in the doctor's office.

Mum made it to the car before she did too.

"H-he talked," she said, whimpering, stuttering and gasping, her fingers white on the steering wheel and her fake nails damaging the leather. "He talked about you like you were terminal."


	4. Step Four: Make Internet Friends

Al didn't present for a long time. Between the leaflets, the book, and the internet, he learned that he wouldn't present at all unless he met an Alpha. This meant there weren't any in his daily life, which was very good news.

He was producing twilight pheromones anyway, he just wasn't having heats, so he counted his blessings, because until he presented, he would be infertile. The last thing he wanted to think about was babies - the last thing he _ever_ wanted to think about was babies.

Al learned his Alpha-evasion tactics from the internet.

_Plumbers tape_ _and silicon - bedrooms have holes! The whole hiding thing is pointless if they can smell you out of an unsealed window.  
__-Allison_

_Who needs ventilation anyway, lol  
_ _-Caw_

_If I have to smell my own sweat much longer I'm going to puke, Caw.  
_ _-Allison_

_If you can smell anything except your air purifier, maybe some incense, and that sweet ganja then you're not doing it right.  
_ _-Tree_

_Are the results in on that? Apparently it brings on heats - but that's Ancient House research, so I don't know what to believe.  
_ _-Allison_

_Oh yeah the heats are frequent AF but theyre sorta muted if that makes any sense. Often, but smaller. I don't get as sad afterward either.  
_ _-Tree_

_Your mum still snorting her way to hell?  
_ _-Allison_

_She ain't gonna get better without some serious proper rehab. I mean like institution shit. I'll be going away soon. Either she'll sell me for coke or I'll sell me to get her into the private system  
_ _-Tree_

_I'm new here,_ Al tried to post, but it wouldn't let him without posting a name. He wasn't dumb enough to use his real name. The only one that was using an actual name was Allison, but that probably wasn't Allison's name either.

_I'm new here.  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_Hi, I haven't decided on an alias. I'm Allison. It'll take us a while before we believe you're one of us and not just an Alpha trying to sus out our locations.  
_ _-Allison_

_Can you give me some more advice like the plumber's tape? I keep getting books on 'my first heat' and how wonderful it'll be when im bonded and shit and I just want to not get kidnapped  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_Mood.  
_ _-Caw_

_Go back into your bunker if you don't have anything helpful to say, Caw  
_ _-Allison_

_Whatever you do, do not kick up a sweat, they can smell it on you  
_ _-Caw_

_Dye your hair pronto, and use the_ CHEAPEST _most shoddiest most questionable dye you can  
__-Allison_

_If you hear that you live near Tolphoys, Creedies, Absens, Crowleys, or Hales, pack your shit and move asap. Tolphoys like fucking with politics and keep getting arrested for murder, Creedies keep Omegas in harems and teach them they're sex dolls and portable wombs, Absens are just fucking weird, Crowleys are hyper breeders and you will be killed the moment you stop going into heat, and Hales will mindbreak you until they can parade you around like a trophy wife and make Betas think oh hey it's not so bad, look how happy that lady with the dead eyes is  
_ _-Tree_

Al wrote down the names to investigate later, but he'd already heard of a few of those Houses in his own research.

Jonathon Creedie was an admiral and Al couldn't remember if he was the big cheese of the Creedie family or not.

Joseph Hale was a senator and head of the Ancient House of Hale. He was vehemently against the Omega Houses and believed that any Omegas born of Beta parents should be arranged to bond Alphas by their parents in exactly the same way as Omegas born to the Ancient Houses were. He advocated that there should be subsidies for Beta-born Omegas to attend what he called 'finishing schools', which Al had looked up and loathed.

The head of the Tolphoys was a retired diplomat, but his son was the one who always made the news, and Ren Tolphoy scared Al more than most Alphas might, because if an Alpha kidnapped an Omega and their parents tried to bring him to justice through the court, Ren Tolphoy would be that Alpha's lawyer.

If Al was kidnapped illegally, outside of the twilight hours, by a vicious Alpha, Ren Tolphoy would be the man that assured that Al's Alpha never saw the inside of a jail cell.

Al had never heard of any Absens or Crowlies at all, and that scared him more than he liked to admit.

_Why dye my hair?  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_Alphas hate the smell of it. Dye it every week - change out the colours - bleach and fluoro colours work best. It'll destroy your hair but when an Alpha comes within ten feet of you they'll wrinkle their nose and look like they want to puke  
_ _-Allison_

_Can you get a picture of that for me it sounds satisfying AF  
_ _-Caw_

_Dye your hair and go out yourself, hermit. Alphas can sorta turn their noses on and off - I don't really understand how it works - but the hair dye smells so bad it can convince them they should only be using their human nose, not their dog nose. You can get the same effect with fresh paint & sometimes coffee - but you need a lot of coffee, not just a cup. Like a coffee house that preps their own beans.  
_ _-Allison_

_Can we all just agree that Caw shouldn't go out? He's got his shit together, come on. We should all just move in with him.  
_ _-Tree_

_I dare you to find me, bitches.  
_ _-Caw_

_To be honest I'm just glad you're still alive. Sometimes I worry that you died all alone and no one knew. You're not around for months and then you show up for a few days, then bugger off again. You understand why that scares us, right?  
_ _-Allison_

_I ration my internet, fools. As should you. I'm not around long enough or often enough to attract attention. Also, wtf makes you think I like sitting around whining about this? I have far more entertaining servers to chat on.  
_ _-Caw_

_Like?  
_ _-Tree_

_I'm not telling you my hobbies. Let's just say, if I were you, r/trees would be one of them.  
_ _-Caw_

_Dude I can't infringe on that place. That's Snoop's territory.  
_ _-Tree_

_As if the King would reject you.  
_ _-Caw_

Al had long since lost the thread of this conversation. That happened a lot on the internet.

_Seriously, new kid, here's the advice. RUN. Find yourself a bunker in the country, seal it up good. Order flour and tinned food in bulk with instructions to leave at the door. Set up some hydro if you're into trees. Whatever keeps you going. Just don't fucking stay in society. Get out, lock it down, and make sure the cage you live out your life in is the cage you make for yourself. I'm out. See you turds in a month.  
_ _-Caw_

_I hate that guy  
_ _-Allison_

_I hate him too, but he's got a point about the hydro & the bunker. Dude's a prepper. I'd love to see his grow setup  
_ _-Tree_

_Don't get reliant on drugs if you're planning on selling yourself  
_ _-Allison_

_Yeah, I know. Probably wouldn't be good for the babies or some bullshit.  
_ _-Tree_

_You alright, I haven't decided on an alias?  
_ _-Allison_

_Not really  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_Mood.  
_ _-Caw_

_Fuck off Caw  
_ _-Allison_

_< /3  
_ _-Caw_

Al didn't hear from Caw again. Allison said that he probably changed servers or got kidnapped. It took her two years to tell Al that she believed he was telling the truth, and she never told him her real name or what country she lived in.

In those two years, Al still didn't present, but Joseph Hale got re-elected, Ren Tolphoy got four Alphas off kidnapping charges with nothing but community service, a Tolphoy murdered an Absen and somehow got away with it because they declared it was a lawful Ancient House duel first, Daniel Withers became a teen heartthrob sensation by acting in a high school drama as a werewolf and _actually shifting_ on camera for it, and Jonathon Creedie had three new Alpha sons by three different Omegas. Al had no idea how many Omega children he'd sired, because those were never bragged about.

Al tracked the Absens, Crowlies, and Hales to living somewhere north. The Tolphoys were scattered through the country, but there weren't many of them.

The Creedies were the toughest. There were so many of them that they were impossible to avoid, and they had a terrible habit of getting disowned and cut off, leaving them to roam free in Beta society.

Al found himself memorising the Creedie nose, which was a uniquely disastrous kind of nose, and hoping he'd be able to spot any Creedies he might meet. Half of them had that nose, but half of them had a nose that Al presumed was from their Omega parent's side.

Was it right to call them a _mother_ , when sometimes they were a man? Al didn't know, and he was too afraid to ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Todays tropes:
> 
> !shapeshifters - because Alphas totally needed more power in their corner, lol


	5. Step Five: Don't Go To The Dance

Al and Larissa were shopping for a school dance Al knew he would not attend. It was going to be held too late in the day, when he would need to be locked up in his sealed bedroom, and he didn't dance anyway because he was terrified of producing a sweat that an Alpha might smell.

They were pretending he would go, though, and shopping as though he couldn't figure out what to wear, and that was fun. It was midday on a Saturday, and they ran into Leo.

As usual, Leo sucked, but he was gorgeous. Somehow, Al's ridiculous crush on him had not faded, even though they were both in love with Larissa. As far as Al could tell, Leo had gotten over his crush on Larissa and fallen for her again at least three times that year alone.

"Hey cutie," Leo said, throwing an arm over the clothes rack Larissa was perusing.

"Why, yes, I am a cutie," Larissa deadpanned.

"Nothing works on you, does it?" Leo asked. "That's why I like you, you know. You're not like other girls."

"That, too, will not work on me," Larissa said.

"Yeah, I know," Leo said. "I regretted even trying it the moment it came out of my mouth."

"You should try thinking before you talk," Al said.

"You're not wrong, little dude, you're not wrong," Leo said.

"You could also try not insulting her friends," Al said.

"When did I insult you? What's wrong with being a little dude? I mean, come on. Little dudes are fine. Some of my best friends are little dudes."

"Your friends are all tall, dark, handsome clichés," Larissa said. "You aren't friends with any little dudes."

"I would be if you came to this stupid dance with me. I'd have to be friends with this little dude right here," Leo said. He picked his arm off the rack, shifted his weight, and slung his other arm over Al's shoulder.

Al was weirdly into it, but he would never admit that.

Larissa sighed. "Leo," she said calmly and softly, like she was talking to someone far below her own mental capacity, which Al supposed was. "I can't go to the dance with you. You're an asshole. You got into a fight with Jimmy last week because he broke up with Jessica, and Jimmy has every right to break up with Jessica."

"Jimmy's a dumb tool who doesn't know a good thing when it sucks him off in the locker room," Leo said.

"Oh my God," Larissa said. "Only an _asshole_ would tell me that. Why would you say something like that? Oh, God. No, Leo, just no. I can't go with you because you're an asshole."

Leo sighed and tightened his grip on Al's shoulder. "Look, okay, we can all agree that you're too good for me. Just promise you aren't going with the little dude," he said.

"I have a name," Al said.

"Your name is Al, you tried out for the soccer team once, you hate sports and you play some game on the computer where you build factories," Leo said. "Come on, little dude, give me some credit."

Al was shocked. All of that was true.

"I'd go with Al if I wanted to," Larissa said.

"Promise you won't," Leo said. "I'm, like, ninety percent sure that Joey's crushing on him, in that pre-'realising you've been gay all along' stage of bromance."

Al would have lost his balance if not for Leo's strong, secure hold on his shoulder.

"It was the pink hair," Leo went on, oblivious. "Like, a month ago? You had pink hair, and his wires got crossed, like he saw pink and thought, 'Pink's a girl colour, so that must be a girl,' and then he was like 'Oh shit,' when you went black and red bits and now he's like, 'Leo, I think I'm gay,' and I just can't deal, right, because he's always been just so incredibly fabulous and I can't believe he's only figuring it out now."

"Then Joey clearly needs time and space to figure himself out, not you interfering on his behalf," Larissa said calmly.

"I probably won't go," Al said.

"Your Mum being a bitch again?" Larissa asked.

"Yeah," Al said. "Something-something-too much Factorio."

"Little dude," Leo said. "I am _so_ fucking onto you."

Al tensed up underneath Leo's hold. "What?" he hissed.

"Your Mum's in the PTA, little dude. She ran canteen in primary. She's the nicest person ever, and half the time you show up with some new colour in your hair she has it too - you and your mum have little hair dye parties every other week and that's some gay as fuck shit, little dude. But every time something's on, sweet Larissa who deserves so much better is all alone because your mum's grounded you? I call it. It's bullshit," Leo said.

"I had no idea you were so obsessed with me," Al said.

Leo snorted. "You are so far from obsession-worthy, my dude. Just, seriously, start blaming your dad. It'll be more believable that way."

Al frowned, and Larissa looked at the dresses she'd already looked at again.

Leo shook his head, sighed, and removed his arm from Al's person. "I'll be around if you change your mind," he said to Larissa, then he turned to Al. "I'm onto you," he said, tapping his nose and walking away.

"People are figuring it out," Al whispered, too terrified to raise his voice.

"Probably just Leo, because he watches me so much," Larissa said, but she looked worried.

"I _can't_ have him find out," Al said. "What - what if he already _has_?"

"He's just trying to spook you," Larissa said. "He thinks you're shy and using your Mum as an excuse not to go to parties. He's bullying you for being shy, that's all."

"Well, if he wants to spook me, it bloody worked," Al said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Todays tropes:
> 
> !High School  
> !School Douchebag (I could have gone bully here, but I decided that one's too overdone :P)  
> !Popular Girl With A Gay Best Friend (he's bi, but whatever)  
> !You're Not Like Other Girls
> 
> This chapter's a bit short, so I'm going to try to post the next one in the next few days :)


	6. Step Six: Fall In Love Again

There was a point in their final year where Leo had his crush on Larissa in full throttle, Larissa sort of liked him even though he was an asshole, and Joey was experimenting with being bisexual, but the person he wanted to experiment with seemed to be Al.

Al seriously considered it. He would be able to have his first time with Joey that way, instead of with some Alpha and their - oh god - _knot_.

But Al didn't feel a thing for Joey, and while Joey said he wanted to experiment, his face and his tone said he wanted to fall in love and get married. Al couldn't do that with Joey. Only an Alpha could put a bond on Al, and only an Alpha's bond would make his twilight pheromones stop. If Joey fell in love with Al, he would lose Al one day to an Alpha.

So Al went through school and didn't date, didn't experiment, didn't have his first kiss, and he didn't even hold hands.

He never told Larissa that he was in love with her. He was pretty sure she knew.

Leo had figured out something was off with Al long ago, but once Joey was collaborating with him, it all spiralled out of control.

There were theories flying around the school. _Al hasn't gone to a party in years. Al used to play sports, but he doesn't anymore. Al stopped growing. Al hardly ever smiles._

Al considered himself lucky that Joey had completely the wrong idea when he cornered Al after school, pressed him up against his locker, and crowded in.

"You can't hide this from me. You couldn't. _I know_ ," Joey said, their foreheads so close they almost touched. Al wanted to cry, because Al knew what Joey thought, and it would only make Joey want him more.

"Here," Joey said, and glanced around the empty corridor, before yanking his shirt up just enough to show Al a bruise that made him want to vomit.

Everyone knew that Joey's father was a gigantic pile of turd. Everyone knew Joey routinely got the shit kicked out of him. They pretended they didn't know because the moment Joey thought someone suspected, he would look heartbroken and defeated.

"It's okay, Al - it's okay. _I know, I get it_ ," Joey said.

Al shook his head. "You don't," he said.

"Look, I _do_ ," Joey said. "I'm out. I got my deposit. It's a little place, one bed, and I've got no furniture or shit, but come on, you'll be spending all your time at Larissa's anyway. Come with me."

Al shook his head and closed his eyes. He knew that if he opened them, if he looked at Joey's pleading eyes for one more second, he'd get himself a third crush.

"No strings attached," Joey said.

As it turned out, Al didn't need to see Joey's eyes to develop that third crush. He just needed to hear those words.

"It's your Dad, isn't it?" Joey said.

Al shook his head.

"Fuck. It is," Joey said.

Al shook his head again and started to cry.

Joey released him from his hold against the locker and pulled him into a hug. "I'm here," he said. "I'll always be here."

When Al got home, Dad was on the couch with a beer. Al sat right next to him and demanded a hug, just to get the feel of Joey's hug off him. It had been too good, too kind, and too lovely, something Al could never have.

Dad sighed and pat Al awkwardly. "Someone you want me to kill, kiddo?" he asked.

"My ovaries," Al said.

Dad spat half his beer out of his mouth and choked on the rest. Al felt better.

"I'll get your Mum to bring home some chips," Dad said, but rather than get out his phone to call Mum, he stood and walked to the kitchen. When he returned, he handed Al a beer.

Al was underage, but Dad clearly didn't care, so Al latched onto the beer in the same way that Al latched onto any opportunity to bond with his father: greedily, and with both hands.

"Been a while since you beat me in your stupid Dodge," Dad said. Al laughed, switched the TV over to the Xbox's input, and fetched two controllers.

Dad called Mum while Al started their game. "Leann, could you get chips on your way home?" he asked.

Mum's muffled voice came through.

"See you. You too."

_'You too'_ was how Dad said ' _I love you'_ to Mum.

Al had gotten the hang of understanding his father in the last few years. Their relationship was warm and safe, but extremely quiet, like slowly cuddling into a soft bed. The bed would never talk to Al the way Mum or Larissa would, but it would never push him away, never hurt him, and never not be exactly where he expected it to be when he needed a safe space.

Al absolutely refused to think about how close that metaphor was to _nesting_. Nope. Never.

"Feel like doing the Nürburgring in Mini Coopers after I beat you in my Dodge?" Al asked.

"Once was enough," Dad said.

Al smirked. That race had gone for ages. Minis weren't particularly fast.

Halfway through their game, Dad overtook Al, so Al played dirty and tried to distract him with talking. "My friend Joey thinks you're beating me," he said.

"Damn," Dad said, and for a while Al thought that was all he had to say. "Is this because you're perpetually depressed?" Dad asked.

"Yeah," Al said.

"Joey's projecting," Dad said.

Al swerved, which was not a great thing in his Dodge, where handling was terrible at best. He nearly spun out and hit a bollard. "You've met Joey - what - once?"

"Some kids, you can just tell," Dad said.

"He offered to let me move in with him. He's got an apartment."

"I like this kid," Dad said. "Can he beat your Dodge?"

"Never raced him," Al said.

"His loss," Dad said.

After Al won the race, Dad picked a new track, and had them racing in a different class of car so that Al couldn't use his beloved Dodge.

"How's work?"

"It's work," Dad said.

"Insightful," Al said.

Dad smirked. "Did you ever see that movie - what was it - Dusk, or something? With the Alpha in it?"

"Dusk was a TV series, it's old now," Al said. "Do you mean Sea High? Where the guy shifts at the end of the season?"

"Yeah," Dad said. "Saw a clip of it. Intense."

"Yeah," Al agreed. "Apparently there's a Sikh Beta that can shift."

"Do I need to set up wolf traps?"

"Nah," Al said. "It's rare for Alphas to shift on purpose. They have to learn to do it and most can't be bothered."

"I don't understand why anyone wouldn't be bothered," Dad said.

"They're already powerful enough," Al said. "They don't need to be able to turn into wolves. It's just icing on their cake."

Mum came home with chips and a refill of Al's favourite ice cream. No matter how many times Al told her that games and moping was his coping mechanism and ice cream was hers, she never managed to get it.

"I've got a crush on Joey," he told her over dinner.

"Good," she said. "That boy's delightful. There would be something wrong with you if you didn't have a crush on him."

"Didn't you like Larissa?" Dad asked.

"Still do," Al said.

"Or - no, it was Leo, I thought."

"Him too," Al said.

"Some people take a very long time to fall out of love," Mum said simply, and cast a glance at Dad. "You'll know you're in love, and not in a crush, if it starts getting easy to forget the earlier ones."

Al nodded. "I don't think I'll ever fall in love, though," he said.

Mum went through half a tub of ice cream all on her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Todays tropes:
> 
> !Wall Slamming (god I love this one)  
> !Excessive Amounts Of Angst


	7. Step Seven: Attend A Very Gay Party

Larissa held a morning party two months before exams started. "High tea!" she said, her face alight with happiness. "You can come! You don't have to skive off early! It'll be great!"

Al loved her the most.

Leo was invited. A few months ago, he wouldn't have been, because he'd been a gigantic asshole. Now, he was only a regular asshole. Joey was friends with him, and even Larissa was coming around. Al was hesitant at best, but he'd never known Larissa to be a poor judge of character.

The 'Jays' arrived together - Joey, Jimmy and Jessica. Jimmy and Jessica had gotten back together after Jimmy had started seeing another girl, but then he realised how great Jessica was and how incredibly he'd fucked up.

Leo didn't stop saying 'I told you so' for months, because Leo was still an asshole.

Al was at the party early to help Larissa set up. Later, he would wish that he'd skipped it. At the time, he had craved social contact, so he had pretended that he was normal and allowed these things.

He didn't notice Leo watching him and putting the pieces together right there in Larissa's garden, while they had what was possibly the gayest party that ever did gay. They sipped tea and ate cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off, and when the tea cooled, they drank expensive lemonade that was pink for no good reason.

Leo helped clean up, and Larissa smiled as she watched him doing the dishes without being asked. She left to use the bathroom, and Al wiped down the bench they'd left sandwich prep all over.

"So, what's the slick like?" Leo asked.

Al lost his grip on the sponge, but his arm kept moving. He ended up with crumbs all over his hand. He raised it to his face and saw that his whole forearm was shaking.

Al turned to look at Leo, feeling numb.

"Well, that's about as close to a confirmation as I'm ever gonna get," Leo said, shaking his head. "What the fuck," he added, under his breath.

"Who else knows?" Al asked.

Leo shrugged. "No one," he said. "But you were pretty obvious. You don't go to parties, you don't go on camps, you don't play sports, but you'll come here to this party in the morning. You're either the chick from Shrek or you're an Omega. It all kinda slots together once you realise that the time of day matters."

Al folded his arms and did his best not to react.

"So, seriously, what's slick like? I mean, what the fuck, right?" Leo said.

"I've never done it," Al said.

"Well, it's not like there's any Alphas that live here," Leo said. "Though this does explain why you're not into Joey. He ain't all tall and command-y enough, right?"

"It's a _gender_ , not a sexuality," Al said. "I'm not attracted to Alphas. Not even a little bit."

Al thought of Larissa. She was sweet and soft. She wasn't at all tall and commanding - not even close to what an Alpha was like.

Joey was tall, sure, but he was lanky, and only able to take control when he thought Al was also getting beaten up. An Alpha wouldn't have offered to let him move in with them. An Alpha would have just taken him.

Leo stood in front of Al. He was cool, popular, and a bit of a dickhead. He was strong, but it was a lithe strength with no mass to it. He was a bit of an asshole, but never physically. He pursued Larissa, but he understood the word no.

Leo was an asshole, but never a bully, and definitely not an Alpha. Al wasn't even slightly attracted to Alphas.

Leo frowned at him. "So, what, you could be into other Omegas?"

Al thought of Larissa again. "Yeah," he said. "Easily."

"But it'd be an Alpha that'll snatch you some day," Leo said.

"Yeah," Al said again, his voice strangely hoarse.

"And there you'd be, slicking up and taking a knot while you lie there and think of some other Omega," Leo said.

Al was going to cry if Leo kept that up.

"That's rough as fuck," Leo said.

"Yeah," Al said.

Leo folded his arms and leaned back against the sink, his expression contemplative but not unsympathetic.

Larissa returned to the room. "Uh, what have I walked in on?" she asked.

"I was just about to formally request Al's permission to date you," Leo said, smiling widely.

Larissa didn't fall for it, but she played along. "Isn't it the father you have to ask?" she said.

"Oh, my bad," Leo said. "So I ask your dad, he says yes - I mean, come on, I'm on the soccer team - and then you _have_ to date me."

"You're so full of shit," Larissa said.

She ended up dating him anyway. Al was hesitant about this. Two months later, however, Leo still hadn't told a soul, even though he was dating Al's best friend and his own best friend had the wrong idea about what was going on.

Joey still thought Al was getting beaten by his father, and Leo didn't correct him. Larissa still spoke as though Al just wasn't allowed to go out much, and Leo didn't correct her either.

Larissa didn't know that Leo knew, and Leo didn't know that Larissa knew. Larissa wouldn't have been able to keep a secret if Leo had pressed her. She wasn't a natural liar.

Al didn't believe that it was Leo that spilled his secret, but he would never know for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's tropes:
> 
> !Too Many Names Starting With The Same Letter  
> !The Omega That's Not Into Alphas  
> !An Annoying Cliffhanger At The End Of A Chapter


	8. Step Eight: Run Away

At Al's first exam of his final year, he was so nervous he wanted to puke. It only got worse when he saw out the window. Across the road from the school building, there was a man in a car.

It shouldn't have been that simple, but it was. He was leaning back in the driver's seat, and Al just ... knew.

That man was an Alpha.

Al couldn't have articulated what tipped him off. Later, after he had seen more Alphas, he would be able to describe it. It was a combination of everything. The Alpha looked cramped in the car, even though it wasn't small. His forearm was as thick as any weightlifter's, hanging out of the car window carelessly and covered in thick black hair. His pose was too relaxed for someone in public, as though he thought himself unchallengeable.

His nostrils were wide. Al didn't know what an Alpha scenting the air looked like at the time, so he just tried to make it through his exam.

The next day, the Alpha was there again, with another one - a woman. Female Alphas were rarer than male ones, and they were prized. Alpha females were likely to birth more Alphas than Omegas, and they had easy pregnancies and even easier labours. They didn't take care of the children, though. Children were always an Omega's work, as far as the Ancient Houses were concerned.

Al didn't have to go near the two Alphas. Mum dropped him off in the carpark. She always drove Al to school, because he didn't bike anymore, or even walk. Sweat smelled.

The day after, the Alphas were in the carpark. They were tracking him.

Al asked his Mum to do the most mortifying thing a mother could do to her son, and she did it with grace. She walked him into the school and didn't leave his side until she had found Joey outside their homeroom class.

Mum enfolded Joey in a hug. "Don't let him out of your sight today," she said, low and quiet into Joey's ear. "Wait in the office for me to pick him up, okay? I'll drop you home, too, just promise me, _promise me_ you won't leave him."

Joey saluted her, and he wasn't even kidding. He took it like a mission, accompanying Al to classes, and handing him off to Leo when they didn't share a class. "Shit must be going down with his Dad," Joey said.

Leo pretended to accept this, but when the time came that Leo could hand Al over to Joey again to wait in the office for Mum, Leo didn't. He stood in the office, looking out the window with his arms folded and his shoulders tense.

Mum walked them through the carpark and into the car.

"Larissa?" Mum asked.

"At swim," Leo said. "We didn't tip her off. She's got races half the day today."

"Thank you, boys," Mum said.

They went straight home in stilted silence. Dad was sitting on the porch, cradling a shotgun on his lap. Joey looked ready to start a fight with him anyway.

"Man of few words, you are," Mum scoffed at Dad, who nodded, then levelled the shotgun at Leo.

"Did you talk?" he asked.

Dad had a weird way of making himself understood, even though he never used enough words, and his gestures were often nonsense. He pointed a loaded gun at Leo, said three words, and somehow everyone understood what he meant.

He would never shoot Leo, but he was pissed.

"No," Leo said. "He's my girl's best friend. Imagine how shit my life's about to become. She's gonna be so upset. Why would I tell? I figured it out, but if I figured it out, someone else could have figured it out too."

Dad nodded, shrugged, and pointed the shotgun at the porch again.

"Boys, I'm going to make some tea," Mum said, stalking into the house. "I need you to help Al pack a few things. Essentials, dear."

"Pack?" Al asked. He didn't recognise his own voice.

"Sweetie, it's almost four," Mum said, her voice breaking. "Those - those _people_ asked me if they could _buy_ you. That's - that's legal, see, honey, because they make the laws, and you're so close to property as far as the law is concerned. I rang the school and asked them to keep them off the premises, but they told me they'd had a break in last night, and nothing but your records were taken. Honey, they know your name, they know where you live, it's almost four and we have to get you out of here."

Joey had no idea what was going on, and he voiced this, loudly.

Leo put his arm around Al's shoulder and steered him toward the front door, leaving Joey to have the whole thing explained to him by Dad. Al wasn't sure that was a great idea. Dad was Dad, after all.

Al hadn't let anyone into his bedroom in years. It felt unusually intimate, and that only got worse because Leo was grabbing Al's schoolbag, opening it, and shoving into it anything he could see that looked like it might be important.

"Leo," Al said, as Joey's alarmed, rising voice began to infiltrate the house.

"Little dude," Leo responded, and grabbed a duffel from under Al's bed. He opened it, then he opened Al's top drawer and started shoving handfuls of clothes in.

"I love you," Al said.

"Love you too, little dude," Leo said, and ruffled Al's hair.

Joey burst into the room. "Al," he said. "It's cool - ok, it's cool. I got the keys yesterday. You can stay with me. It's cool, it'll be fine."

Al wasn't able to think enough to process this.

"He can't go to an apartment," Mum said softly. "He'd stink up the lobby. Too much traffic, not enough airflow."

Joey frowned. "But - they know what he looks like," he said. "They know his name - where _can_ he go?"

Al knew. Back-up-ville Brighton. They'd move an hour away. They'd stop at an Omega House on the way, where they'd hire him a safe room to spend the night, and pay through the nose for it.

"Little dude," Leo said. "I dunno what else to grab. I need some direction here, at least."

Al didn't have anything else to say to Leo.

"Joey," Al said. "I love you."

Joey swore loudly and held Al closer than anyone but a lover had any right to.

Neither Joey nor Leo knew that he meant it the way he meant it. Larissa would, though.

"Larissa," Al said, looking at Mum.

Mum didn't have the words, for once, and she looked at Dad.

"Alfred," Dad said. "She's at the pool, half an hour in the wrong direction. There isn't time."

And that was Al's story, from beginning to end. They had his name, so he needed a new one. They had his address, so he needed a new one. Al didn't know who had given him up, so as far as Al was concerned, they had his friends too.

Al had to leave them all behind, but people are not simply bodies and minds. People are homes, families, friendships and familiarities.

What Al was could no longer exist. To survive, he would have to cut out everything the Alphas had taken from him, which was an awful lot.

To Al, it felt a lot like dying.

To Fred, who was born from the ashes, it felt like nothing more than a painful, half-repressed memory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's tropes:
> 
> !Dad On The Porch With A Shotgun  
> !Alphas Being Dicks  
> !Unsatisfying Goodbyes  
> !It's Halfway Through And The Title Is Only Just Now Starting To Make Sense (If You Squint)


	9. Step Nine: Let The Coffee Mask The Smell

Fred was stronger than Al, or so he liked to believe. He took his exams by correspondence, got into an online college, and he did everything smart.

He didn't have any unnecessary social contact. No friends meant no rumours, and no people figuring him out. He retreated heavily onto the internet for social contact. _Allison_ obliged.

Brighton was a nice enough place, but the move had made funds tight, so Mum and Dad were a little stressed. Fred dyed his hair three different colours, wore the foulest smelling deodorant he could find, and got a job working the morning shift at an out of the way coffee shop.

It was a good spot because the only people who would ever go there were regulars, and the place reeked of coffee and the dog park next door. _Allison_ told Fred that it should help to cover up his smell, then she chastised him for giving her such specific information.

_For all you know, I'm one of them.  
_ _-Allison_

Fred learned to make a mean coffee and he learned how to be a gigantic snob about coffee. Life was okay for a while. He kept having to arms-length his co-workers, and they kept getting disappointed when he kept a huge distance.

"Why can't you open up, man, just a _little_ , I'm trying to make friends here," Miyah would say, and she said it often.

The shop was pretty boring, and refusing to open up to the other employees made it even more boring, but boring meant there weren't any Alphas, so Fred liked it.

He still hadn't presented. Nothing. Not even any slick. The doctor's tests, the way he wasn't growing as tall as his Dad, and the fact that he'd been hunted down by two Alphas in the past was confirmation enough of what he was, though.

An Alpha came into the shop once and ordered a latte from Fred. Fred fumbled the order and dropped the coffee on himself, burning his hands.

"You all right?" the Alpha asked, and he chuckled a little.

It was the first time that Fred ever been spoken to by one. All the slick in the world couldn't have proven any more than that voice did that Fred was an Omega. The voice sounded too low, jarring and unreal, almost as though it had been pre-recorded, modulated, and then edited back in, but somehow in surround sound.

It made Fred shut his eyes and listen, the way he wanted to whenever Morgan Freeman talked.

"Yeah," Fred said, but it barely passed his lips.

"I'll get it," Miyah said, elbowing Fred out of the way. "Go run that under cold water."

Fred did, listening carefully. Was he found out?

The Alpha waited for his coffee, took it, and left. He hadn't smelled Fred. With the dog stink in the area, the coffee beans, and Fred's hair dye, he had probably been trying hard not to smell anything at all.

They had been in close proximity for all of thirty seconds, but that was enough to set off Fred's presentation. Two days later, Fred taped his door up in his bedroom, as usual, then suddenly felt really weird. Before he knew it, he had ripped off the tape, raided Mum's laundry basket for her favourite purple shirt, and taken Dad's coat. He burrowed under the coat, curled up with the shirt against his chest, and didn't even notice he had left his door open.

Mum came in, and Fred yanked her onto the bed with him.

He vaguely recalled Dad doing something to his door, then Mum said, "I love you," then they were both gone, and the door was shut.

Fred remembered being pissed at them for abandoning him. _Fine_ , he'd thought, _who needs them_ , or something along those lines. He stretched out, kicked at his blankets, then was horrified with himself, because his blankets had been _perfect_ and he'd _ruined_ it, so he spent at least fifteen minutes rearranging them, then he'd been out of them too long and he was cold, so he cried, and he just wanted someone to ...

To what? What the hell did he even want?

_'You all right?'_ the Alpha had asked, and Fred took those three words and latched onto them like a lifeline.

"You all right?" the Alpha would ask, and snigger a bit, and Fred would shake his head because he was so far from all right. All right was three towns and a county away, past the lake, possibly even underground, and Fred was nowhere even close to it.

"You all right?" the Alpha said, his chuckle heavy now, and it got a little better, because he'd be between Fred's parted thighs, _where he damn well fucking ought to be_ , and Fred didn't know when he'd rolled over, he didn't know when he'd gotten so hot on the outside but his bones were so cold they were shivering. The cold was so extreme, Fred knew he'd never warm up unless the Alpha enveloped him in skin and sweat and blankets and that - where was it, where - there. Dad's coat, warm, against his face.

It wasn't Alpha, and Fred whined. The coat comforted and warmed, but it did not soothe.

Nothing soothed. Fred's instinct was to push himself into the warm Alpha behind him, between his thighs and pressing him into bed, but every time he did, he realised there _was no warm Alpha_ , and that hurt.

With every pain, he heard "You all right?", and a little laugh at his expense.

It lasted an hour. Fred came out of it slowly. There had been no release and no arousal. He remembered all of it and he wished he didn't.

The worst part was that he was stuck in his room for the whole night after, with no way to take a shower and wash the slick away without letting his scent out.

This was the first time that Fred realised that arousal and slick weren't necessarily linked. This made everything so much worse, because everything he'd ever read on the subject had implied otherwise.

Dad had left a note on his door. _Taped it up on the other side for you_ , it read.

Fred never saw that Alpha again, but from that moment on, his body had changed. _Presented_. He was sensitive in places he hadn't been sensitive before, he craved physical attention all the time, and he had to learn all over again how to masturbate. That whole system was different now, and what had felt good before was either no longer enough, or too much to handle.

The end result was that half the time, Fred just couldn't be bothered. It took a long time, he couldn't get off unless he was in the right mood, and sometimes even the right mood didn't help.

_I'm told it has something to do with the presentation and something to do with the depression.  
_ _-Allison_

_Does it go away?  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_Maybe. I fixed it with Sea High fanfic. Daniel Withers can do it for me. You might need to bring an Alpha into your me time  
_ _-Allison_

_I don't want any Alphas in my me time  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_Yeah that's why the fanfic helps. If he's doing it with someone that's not me I'm OK with it  
_ _-Allison_

_The weed helps me to chill out enough, but you can't have too much else you're too chilled to bother  
_ _-Tree_

Fred didn't have the slightest idea where he could get weed, but he did know that Mum didn't care for it, and after she had abandoned her entire life and moved just for him, he felt that she deserved his obedience in this.

So, to see what would happen, Fred tried bringing Daniel Withers into his 'me time'. He tried as hard as he could, but for all Daniel Withers’ undeniable hotness, he could not turn Fred on. Fred didn't like his Sea High character, he didn't like him in real life interviews, and he didn't even like him when fans wrote him as a sappy, out of character fanfiction trope.

Fred was more interested in Skye Black, Daniel's co-star, who was soft, petite and adorable, with a sharp wit and a big smile, but she too couldn't get him off reliably.

The more Alpha-like that Daniel Withers or his on-screen characters behaved, the less Fred was attracted to him, and the sweeter and kinder other people were, the more likely Fred was to like them.

Fred felt like he was realising he was bi all over again. Maybe he was gay, but secondary gender gay. Did that make any sense?

Fred wondered if there were any gay Alphas. Could Alphas be attracted to other Alphas? Maybe Fred could find a gay Alpha that could bond him to stop his pheromones, and then they could look for their gay counterparts together.

Fred didn't know. All he knew for sure was that he kept dreaming of Latte Man and his little chuckle at Fred's expense, and it made him slick up and sometimes he'd get hard, but thinking about Latte Man any further ended in depression, not climax.

_Are you ever going to change your username?  
_ _-Allison_

_I'm not good at naming things  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_Least you're not named after a plant  
_ _-Tree_

_Or a bird screech.  
_ _-Allison_

_I hope Caw is ok. I mean, he's an asshole, but he's our asshole, yanno?  
_ _-Tree_

_I don't think he ever was our asshole. He's probably off on another server. There's another group I'm in (no I won't share details) and there's a guy in there and I swear I'm getting a Caw vibe  
_ _-Allison_

_What, he swoops on in, shits all over the place, and flies away?  
_ _-Tree_

_Exactly  
_ _-Allison_

_That guy's gonna be proper fucked when he's bonded if he's as bad as all this  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_I kind of wish I could see it, if anyone could stick it to an Alpha, it'd be Caw.  
_ _-Allison_

_Maybe he IS an Alpha  
_ _-Tree_

_Maybe he's just a douchebag  
_ _-Allison_

_How's your mum, Tree?  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_She nearly ODed the other day, ended up in hospital. I know I shouldn't say stuff like that Allison so don't start on me. I'm gonna go to a House soon, probably this year, hopefully get her institutionalised with the money. At least then I won't have to watch her do this to herself. Or maybe if I'm good my Alpha will let her visit. Maybe if I'm a real slut I'll be able to get him to use his commandy voice to order her not to see her dealer ever again.  
_ _-Tree_

_I won't start on you, Tree, I promise. Reckon you can pull off Omega sluttery?  
_ _-Allison_

_From what I've seen in their romance novels, the trick is to say "Alpha" as much as possible and to let them molest my neck and bam apparently I'm irresistible  
_ _-Tree_

_Did you ever read 'The Red Bond'? That was a laugh. Oh, Alpha, Alpha, please Alpha, please. I swear 90% of that Omega's character development was actually vocabulary development so she could beg for a knot in new and exciting ways  
_ _-Allison_

_I need you inside me, Alpha, I need your knot  
_ _-Tree_

_I'm so empty, I need you to fill me up, Alpha  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_Please mark me, make me yours, Alpha  
_ _-Allison_

_brb gotta puke  
_ _-Tree_

_I'm gonna laugh so fucking hard if it's all true and that's what it's actually like to fuck an Alpha. Like they say they're sex machines and Omegas are crazy for knots but Beta guys say that about their dicks too so ... I'm questioning it  
_ _-Allison_

_I'm cautiously optimistic? Like, if I'm gonna get kidnapped or I'm gonna sell myself, at least gimme an epic supernatural dicking  
_ _-Tree_

_What's the bet it's a conspiracy and they're all packing shrivelled little shrimp dicks?  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_How funny would it be if my dick was bigger than my Alphas?  
_ _-Allison_

_!!!  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_You're not a guy, Allison, I'm not falling for your shit  
_ _-Tree_

_Keeps you on your toes. Keeps me safe.  
_ _-Allison_

All that Fred knew for sure about Allison was that if she or he ever disappeared, Fred would have no idea where to start looking. He wouldn't even know a country or a continent. He was pretty sure Tree lived in his country, as Tree had once mentioned a public holiday that lined up with a local one Fred shared.

Fred wondered if he'd be able to use every little piece of information he'd gathered about Tree to narrow down who he was. He knew that Tree had a drug addicted mother with an approximate hospitalisation date, a probable country of residence, an interest in weed, and that he would have dyed hair.

Fred wouldn't even look for Tree, but an Alpha might.

_Take care of yourself, Tree.  
_ _-I haven't decided on an alias_

_I always do.  
_ _-Tree_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's tropes:
> 
> !Omega Presentation  
> !Nesting  
> !A Gay Crisis  
> !Omegas Begging For Knots  
>   
> A trope I purposefully didn't use, but drew attention to because it bothers me so much:
> 
> !Getting Wet Means You're Aroused
> 
> Here's why: I'm going for as much realism as I can with this. I can't stress this hard enough: Self Lubricating Holes Are Not An Accurate Measure Of Arousal And I Refuse To Partake Of That Nonsense. 
> 
> I could go on a rant about this for hours. I'm not going to because it'll just get me all riled up.


	10. Step Ten: They're Not All Bad

The next Alpha that Fred met was in a mall. Fred was out with his Mum, but she had gone to look at bras, and for some weird reason that made Fred uncomfortable, so he was just wandering.

Fred had been distracted. Senator Joseph Hale had been on the TV that morning, talking about 'The Mum Law'. He was publicly opposing Jonathon Creedie, who was funding a campaign to have it overturned.

The Creedies and the Hales were not getting along at the time. There were often reports of them fighting each other, especially the younger ones. One of Senator Hale's own sons had been stabbed. So long as they kept their squabbles to themselves and didn't damage any property, the police stayed out of it.

The Mum Law was a weird, roundabout way of keeping Alphas out of Beta prisons. Some thirty years back, the Betas had done a study that showed that most Alphas that wound up in prison had little to no childhood relationship with their Omega parent. Studies since then had just kept on showing the same thing, over and over.

Alphas without an Omega raising them were violent little shits. Fred was _so_ surprised.

The Mum Law gave Omegas full custody over any child of theirs under the age of fourteen. This didn't change anything most of the time, because Alphas had custody over their bonded Omegas, so custody of the children transferred over.

Sometimes Omegas were rejected, and their Alpha gave up on their bond. This never ended well for the Omega, as rejection sickness was not fun. If an Omega was rejected, then their Alpha no longer had custody over them, but the Omega still had custody of their kids, meaning those children would live with their Omega parent in the Beta world until rejection sickness eventually killed the parent, which could take years or even decades. It would certainly take long enough for those Alpha children to grow up influenced by the Beta world.

The law was enough to keep a chunk of Alphas from winding up in prison, not because they ended up being raised in Beta society, as there were precious few Beta-raised Alphas, but because it kept Omegas from being rejected in the first place. If an Alpha rejected their Omega, they also rejected their children, so they rarely rejected their Omegas.

The Betas had the Alphas in a political chokehold.

_'Keep your violent criminals out of our justice system, or we'll enact laws to lower your crime rates,'_ Betas had said, and it had worked.

It wasn't clear to Fred why it had worked. Laws only passed if the Ancient Houses let them pass. Senator Hale saw to that. Fred could only surmise that the Ancient Houses had thrown the Betas a bone thirty years ago, or that some of them didn't care much either way and had let the law pass to piss off another House.

Some of the Ancient Houses hated the law because it gave Omegas rights. The Withers and the Creedies were prime examples of this. The Crowleys didn't care one way or another because all of their Omegas died before they bothered rejecting them, so it didn't affect them at all.

Some Houses were with Joseph Hale on the matter, but he wasn't exactly for the Mum Law either, though. "It's a roundabout way of combating a much larger problem," Hale would say, implying that he didn't like the law, but he was still against overturning it. "Being raised by an Omega not only keeps Alphas out of prisons, it also keeps them as functional members of Ancient House society. They wind up in Beta prisons because we exile them, because they aren't fit to be part of our society, but they're obviously not fit to be in Beta society either. Omegas raise good children - they are natural mothers, and if an Alpha isn't prepared to let an Omega be a mother to their children, then they shouldn't have bonded one in the first place. Omegas should be with their children in early childhood. A well-rounded Alpha is raised by a doting Omega and a strong Alpha."

Fred was suffering from an interesting, dichotomous feeling of wanting to support Senator Hale in his defence of a good law, and also wanting to punch him, real hard, right in the face. This feeling was enough to offset Fred's attention, and allow an Alpha to catch him completely off guard in a shopping mall.

The Alpha was thin, which was strange to see. Fred knew a lot about Alpha biology, because he had a mild curiosity about whether they would be susceptible to poisons. As such, Fred knew that Alphas didn't normally get thin, they had too much muscle. Sometimes, when the muscle got too big to fit their frame and the Alpha risked losing their range of movement, the muscle would instead learn to grow denser, rather than larger.

The lithe, brown haired man that Fred passed was an Alpha that was so fit that his muscular structure had switched from bear-like to panther-like. This was an Alpha that _lifted_.

Fred didn't expect the Alpha to turn around and follow him. He ducked into a newsagent that he had thought had an outside exit, but it didn’t, so he wound up at the back, faced with a wall of magazines, and then the Alpha's hand was on his shoulder, turning him around.

His nose was on Fred's neck, and his teeth - Fred could be bonded by those teeth, no, please, no...

It was _illegal_ , right there, in broad daylight, but that wouldn't stop an Alpha. Fred knew better. Alphas were arrogant and entitled, and Omegas were property.

But Fred could not make his mouth work. He couldn't make a sound and he could barely breathe. The Alpha's hair tickled his chin as he inhaled, and Fred looked at his long hair, pulled back into a loose plait.

Keeping long hair was an Ancient House thing, sometimes, but it was also sometimes a Beta thing, so Fred had no idea how to feel about it. All Fred knew for sure was that this Alpha didn't have a Creedie nose, but that didn't necessarily mean he wasn't a Creedie.

Plait Man moved away from Fred's neck, leaving no bite and no bond. He looked a bit green, like he might be sick. "Sorry," he said. "The dye ... confuses the nose. I thought I smelled something else."

Fred couldn't even whimper.

The Alpha sensed his fear but didn't seem to like it. It made him grimace. "Here," he said. He put his cheek on Fred's neck and dragged it up to his jaw, then repeated the action on the other side. There was a tiny bit of stubble, and it grated on Fred's smoother skin, sure to leave a red mark. "You smell like me now. Before, I could smell you from the other side of the mall. Go home, quick. Shower."

Fred had no idea. No one had ever told him that an Alpha might help him hide. No one had ever said that he might get smelled out, then told he was smelling, and sent home.

"Thank you," he said, weak and quiet.

"You're welcome," Plait Man said.

Fred went home and showered, then locked himself up in his room, trying and failing not to think of Plait Man. He played Factorio the whole night, even when he was so tired, he saw double. If he didn't, he'd think of Plait Man. He probably made some terrible factory design decisions that would come back to bite him, but it was better than going to bed and thinking about what had happened.

_Stubble scraping his jawline._

_A hand on his shoulder._

_A nose on his neck._

Early in the morning, Fred collapsed into bed and had his first heat. It felt a lot like a wet dream. Flashes of memory, ideas and sensation, and then a slow wake to find that everything was a complete mess.

It had started with Plait Man's cheek on either side of Fred's face, putting his scent there. Then there were images of his hair, ideas of what it might look like unplaited.

_"You smell like me now."_

It felt similar to Fred's presentation, only it came on slower and felt like it was going to last longer, and the Alpha that invaded his thoughts was nicer. Though he was not gentle, Plait Man didn't once laugh at Fred's expense.

After not long at all, Fred was huddled up in blankets, dreaming about Plait Man's dense chest against his back, holding and protecting him. Then there was a change in position, where Fred went onto his stomach, squirmed his thighs apart, and Plait Man had obligingly laid in the space he was given. That dream had been absolutely great, for a while.

Then it wasn't enough, and Fred wanted something _more_.

He'd been warned about this, and he'd experimented before, because why not, right?

None of his toys were enough. Nothing was even close to what he dreamed of Plait Man giving him. They were so _cold_.

Fred didn't find any sort of peace until he reached a dream where it wasn't himself putting toys in, it was Plait Man, and Plait Man seemed to enjoy it even though Fred didn't. That was how it ended.

Fred dreamed about only being able to survive if he was pleasing an Alpha he didn't even know, that was too old for him, wasn't his type, and had chased him down in a shopping mall. When it was over, his thighs were covered in slick, he hadn't come once, he was cold in his bones and he wanted to vomit, but he had learned a valuable lesson.

Some Alphas would chase him down in a shopping mall like an asshole, but then they'd stop at being an asshole. Plait Man hadn't escalated from a douchebag that would corner Fred in a shop into a sociopath that would kidnap him and force him to bear children.

Fred could handle some douchebaggery. It was the kidnapping and child-rearing that he didn't want.

Maybe they weren't all that bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's Tropes:
> 
> !Rejection Kills Omegas  
> !That Author That Just Can't Write Anything Without A Long Haired Character In It  
> !You Smell Like Me Now   
> !Heat


	11. Step Eleven: Become Red

Fred took a week to recover from his first heat, and another week after that to feel anything even resembling sane. _Allison_ told him that this was a normal post-heat depression, and to grit his teeth, because the longer he went unbonded, the worse these times would get. Plait Man's actions in the mall were so incredibly unusual that _Allison_ flat out didn't believe him when he told her about it.

Fred had his next heat two months later. They were supposed to be far more frequent, from weekly to three weekly depending on the Omega, but not being near Alphas kept Al's body dormant. He only had a heat at all if he had recently been near one. Al didn't spot the Alpha that brought his next heat. He must not have been around long enough or gotten close enough for Al to notice him.

Al could tell it was a heat before it landed. He got bone cold at the slightest breeze and found himself prone to hugging his parents, trying to sap their warmth. _Heat_ would have been the last word an Omega would have used to describe it. It had clearly been named by an Alpha that knew nothing about it.

A new office building went up near Fred's coffee shop. At first it only brought in a few new customers, as there was another shop in between. Eventually, people started realising that Fred's shop sold better coffee, but only people that were picky enough to want the better coffee would walk from the offices all the way Fred's shop.

After a few months, an Alpha came in.

This time, all of Fred's strategies worked, and Fred didn't fumble the coffee. The Alpha took his drink - a double shot long black - and sat in a booth he was far too big for, drinking and scrolling on his phone.

The Alpha came in for coffee again each weekday morning, dressed for work. Fred's colleague, Miyah, said that he was ' _fucking scrumptious'_ every time he came in, and she didn't seem to care that the Alpha overheard her every time.

It took her a week to wonder if Double Shot Long Black Man was an Alpha. "He works in an office, and yet he's as jacked as July in a fireman calendar. Alpha, surely. Right?" she said.

"Probably," Fred said noncommittally.

Miyah nodded. "He's seen me checking him out," she said sadly. "No numbers. Must be saving himself for an Omega."

"Probably," Fred said.

"Anyone ever tell you you're a shit conversationalist?" Miyah asked.

"Probably," Fred said, smirking.

That made Miyah laugh.

The Alpha came into the shop every weekday morning for two months. He didn't notice Fred's smell, he often scowled at the dog park next door, and the most attention he ever gave Fred was to grimace when Fred had a fresh dye job.

Fred found himself wondering who the Alpha was and where he had come from. Was he Ancient House, and had some reason to be working in a small Beta town? Was he one of the rare occasions when an Alpha was born to two Beta parents? Was he disowned from an Ancient House, and trying to make it on his own?

When it happened, it happened in a sudden, unpleasant way, as completely unforeseen things always do.

"Where were you yesterday?" the Alpha asked, gruff and annoyed, as Fred punched his usual order into the till.

Fred wasn't normally asked questions by the Alpha. For the first few orders, the Alpha had said nothing but "Double shot long black" and Fred had responded with the price. Money would then be exchanged, Fred would say something along the lines of "Coming right up," and then he'd make the order and hand it over. After the first few orders, the Alpha had seen that Fred already had his order punched in when he came in the door, so he'd stopped saying anything at all. He just put his money on the counter and waited for Fred to hand the coffee over.

Fred looked at the Alpha in stunned silence before he realized he was acting weird. "Had a family thing," he said quietly, which was a lie. The truth was that since Double Shot Long Black Man had started coming to the shop, Fred had been going into heat every two weeks like clockwork.

The less time between the heats, the less time he would spend in the throes of it, and the less depressed he would be in the week after, putting Fred into a classic 'Can't live with them, can't live without them' conundrum.

Double Shot Long Black Man hadn't noticed Fred's disappearances before, and had never smelled Fred's heat, even though _Allison_ said that they could smell it when a heat was starting. The Alpha always seemed a little too distracted to care, like he was only there for his morning coffee and had no time for unrelated, frivolous business like smelling out Omegas. Fred liked this about Double Shot Long Black Man. It felt relatable.

"Your girlfriend always burns the bean," the Alpha said.

"That's no good," Fred said, because Miyah _did_ always burn the bean, so he clearly needed to get back on her case about it - wait, _girlfriend?_ "She's not my girlfriend."

The Alpha furrowed his brow, then shrugged. "She's always making doe eyes at you," he said.

"She's making doe eyes at _you_ ," Fred said. "Then she's looking at me wanting pity because you're not giving her your number."

"She's making eyes at us both," Double Shot Long Black Man said. "I thought you were together. That's why I didn't give you my number."

Fred's mind was struggling to catch up. He felt muted and quietened. "She's making eyes at us both?" he asked, then looked the Alpha up and down. He was still exactly the same as he'd always been - tall, dark, handsome and strong, while Fred was short, wiry, and currently wearing green and blue hair. "She couldn't have more varied taste," Fred said.

The Alpha laughed, which was how it all went to hell. Laughter meant breathing harder and breathing harder meant scenting.

Fred saw the moment recognition bloomed in the Alpha's eyes. Dread took hold in Fred's belly.

Double Shot Long Black Man looked Fred over from behind the counter, as if seeing him for the first time, and he sniffed obviously and openly. They were both silent, looking at each other, processing, and Fred felt like his entire life was on pause just waiting for this Alpha to decide what he would do.

It wasn't exactly a new feeling. Fred had felt like his life was paused and waiting for an Alpha to mess with it for a long time.

The Alpha licked his lips and sniffed the air again, then he spoke. "There's an unbonded Omega that we let run the reception in my office," he said slowly, carefully, like every word was important and heavy. "She's been promised to a friend of mine for a year now. Before we moved buildings, she used to smell amazing, like wine and cream, and I used to dream about her. I didn't act on it, of course, she's promised, and hasn't presented yet. After we moved, she smelled disgusting. I just assumed she wasn't my type anymore, or that she was starting to smell like her Alpha, and that's obviously not going to work for me."

Fred wasn't sure what any of that meant, but he loathed all of it. He was disgusted by the idea that they were 'letting' an Omega run reception while she waited to be sexually mature so that she could bond to some Alpha she'd been promised to.

Double Shot Long Black Man kept going, his eyes filled with focused heat. "It's not that, though, is it? It's _you_. I've been smelling you, and while you're around, anything less isn't worth my attention."

This really wasn't soothing the dread in Fred's stomach.

"Have you heard of it? Do the Betas teach you about it in school? We're hyper-compatible. That's the only thing that could sour another Omega's scent to me."

The dread was only getting stoked by this, like it was a flame in a hearth and the Alpha's words were a poker. Fred wished that rather than thinking up metaphors, his mind would figure out what to _do_.

"I liked you _before_ ," the Alpha said. "Before I knew what you were, when I thought you were just a Beta that wouldn't even make me knot, I still wanted you. Now? God, just look at you, you beautiful thing."

Fred was struggling to breathe. He had to figure out how to manage this, or even how to delay it, because it was quite clear where this was going, and he rather disliked it.

Somehow, Fred struck gold. "Your coffee's on the house," he said. He meant it to come out strong and confident, but it came out meek and demure.

Double Shot Long Black Man's eyebrows shot up, surprised and confused. "I don't care about the coffee," he said.

" _If_ you'll wait until Miyah's off her break, so I can watch her make it and teach her not to burn the bean," Fred said. Again, what came out of Fred's mouth was a trembling, weakened sound. Fred was ashamed of it.

Double Shot Long Black Man's surprise slowly morphed into amusement, then into compliance. "All right," he said, looking at Fred fondly.

Maybe they _were_ hyper-compatible, because Fred felt like he could see directly into this Alpha's head. He knew exactly what he was thinking. He wanted Fred to teach Miyah to do it better, because when Fred was bonded, Fred would be making his morning coffee at home and he would only come into the shop for his afternoon coffee, which Fred obviously wouldn't be making, because Fred would be at home making babies or nests or whatever the hell it was that bonded and homebound Omegas were actually supposed to do.

The Alpha leaned over the counter and Fred froze up on instinct, tense and surprised, but all the Alpha did was rub his wrist on Fred's neck in a gesture that seemed fond and loving, then he sat down at a table and waited, typing something on his phone.

Fred leaned against the counter and mirrored him, sending a barrage of texts to his mother.

_Mum come get me_

_There's an Alpha_

_I'm stalling him_

_Please hurry_

After a second thought, he typed again, to his father.

_Dad help I'm at the shop_

Miyah showed up, her break having been over ten long minutes ago. Fred gently told her that the Alpha had said she'd burnt the bean.

"You okay? You're fucking stammering," Miyah said, not bothering to keep her voice down. Fred accidentally glanced at the Alpha, and Miyah set her mouth into a pencil thin line. "He chew you out?" she asked lowly.

"No," Fred said. "Just - just make the coffee, please."

Miyah did, and Fred told her when she needed to stop tamping down the grind, or it would be too thick for the water to get through, resulting in a burnt taste. Miyah did exactly as she was told, despite being more senior at the shop than Fred was. It would have been a perfect opportunity for her to be angry at Fred for telling her how to do her job, but instead she sent angry glances at the Alpha the whole time.

Miyah took the coffee to Double Shot Long Black Man, and patiently waited for him to sip it. "That's perfect, thank you," he said politely.

Miyah smiled, relaxing a bit. "Sorry," she said. "We all make mistakes, right?"

Fred could see a tiny bit of the light in her eyes go dim at having to say that.

"Don't think anything of it," the Alpha said.

Miyah and Fred returned to the counter. "Okay, so he's a dick," Miyah whispered sadly. "Why are all the hot ones dicks?"

Fred thought of Leo. It seemed so long ago now. "Tell me about it," he said.

"When's your break?" the Alpha called out.

Fred froze.

"He took his just before I had mine," Miyah lied. Fred thanked her with his eyes.

The Alpha rose and walked to the counter. "Hot chocolate," he said, and took out his wallet.

Miyah frowned, screwing up her nose.

"Take a break anyway," the Alpha said.

Fred nodded, and hated himself for doing it, but he'd agreed to the Alpha's order before he could stop himself. He took off his apron with shaking fingers.

He hadn't even had to put on that voice that Alphas could do, the one that forced people to obey. He'd just spoken exactly as he normally did, and Fred caved to his whim as though his spine was missing.

The Alpha put a twenty on the counter - way more than they charged for a hot chocolate - and went back to his table and his coffee. Fred slowly walked over and sat down opposite him while Miyah made the hot chocolate.

"I ..." Fred started, but trailed off, not knowing how to articulate what he wanted to say without angering the Alpha.

_'I don't want you'_ doubtlessly wouldn't go over well.

_'You're not my type'_ probably wasn't something the Alpha would even care about.

_'I hate your entire gender'_ wasn't a good thing to say to _anyone_.

The Alpha sipped his coffee and smiled. "Go on," he said, coaxing.

"I'm ... a little scared," Fred said.

"Oh, thank the heavens," the Alpha said. "Me too. I never dreamed - I thought I'd end up at one of the Omega Houses, buying one for myself, but here you are. It's like it's fate. It's terrifying."

That did not make Fred any less scared.

"Could we - could we slow down, please?" he asked.

The Alpha frowned. "Slow down? We're only having a drink."

That was a no. Fred wasn't sure how the Alpha could be oblivious to his nervous body language. How could anyone miss the trembling of Fred's fingers or the way he sat, head down and turned away? Fred wasn't sure how he could communicate how little he wanted to do this any clearer. Every body language signal he could think of was being used. The next step was to flatly say, _'Fuck off, dickwad,'_ but there was no way he'd get that out of his closed up throat, which was probably a good thing, because that would make the Alpha angry.

"Why are you working here? I thought coffee was bad for Omegas."

Fred hadn't heard that, but he had heard lots of things that implied that anything bad for pregnant women was bad for Omegas whether they were pregnant or not, and caffeine was on that list. He'd heard this on the internet, though, from Alpha-written sources. He hadn't heard it from his doctor, and therefore he assumed it was bullshit.

"I like the smell," Fred said, because that seemed harmless.

The Alpha smiled. "Tell me about yourself," he said.

Fred bit his lip nervously, his foot jigging even though he tried to stop it. "Um," he said. "I'm twenty. I like computer games."

"Cute," Double Shot Long Black Man said.

Fred wanted to rant at him about how entirely _not cute_ his Factorio efficiency spreadsheet was, or how _not cute_ his Rimworld strategy of turning a raider's skin into hats and then selling the hats back to their hometown was. Fred wasn't cute and he was offended to be mistaken for cute. Absolutely none of this could make it to his mouth. He couldn't even think about saying it, he could only think of how important it was that he didn't say it.

"What about you?" Fred asked, because the silence was drawing on and he wanted to run away, but he knew the Alpha could run faster, so all he could was stall.

"I'm Jonathon. I'm twenty five. Just bought myself an apartment in Torith square."

Torith square was a gated community in the outskirts of the city. It was a known Ancient House hub, full of Alphas and bonded, pregnant Omegas shut up in high class townhouses.

"A... are you Ancient House?" Fred asked.

Double Shot Long Black Man shrugged. His unfortunate nickname had already stuck and was unlikely to leave Fred's brain anytime soon. "I'm a seventh son," Double Shot Long Black Man said. "My father sees me on my birthday, and he paid for my education and healthcare, but that's it."

That was a hell of a lot more than most people got.

"Education?" Fred asked.

"I.T.," the Alpha said. "Cyber security, sort of. Websites, mostly, for now."

Oh, _fuck_. The last thing Fred needed was an Alpha who had computer know-how trying to track him down. Fred rubbed his neck nervously.

"You okay?" Double Shot Long Black Man asked. "You seem a bit ... off."

A bit off was not even close to how off Fred was. Fred was utterly and completely off.

Fred dared a glance at the Alpha's face, and he easily predicted this situation turning even worse than it already was. The Alpha was convinced that Fred was a cute Omega who was compatible with him, and if Fred didn't play that part, he'd get angry. He was already getting angry, his face turning colder with every second that passed.

Fred did not want to have to deal with an angry Alpha. Fred wanted to deal with no Alphas, but if he had to choose, he'd take the Alpha that was convinced they were hyper-compatible and wanted a coffee date over the angry Alpha that wasn't getting what he wanted.

"I'm sorry," Fred said, but that didn't help. "I - I've had a really rough week. I - I don't mean to be rude. I'm just - I - I'm overwhelmed."

"Rough week?" the Alpha asked.

Fred didn't know what to say, so he just extended the lie, stalling. "Rough month," he said, then he figured out what he needed to say. "Rough few months, actually. It's not - it's not you. I'm - I've been having trouble being sociable for a while now. Ask Miyah, she'll tell you."

Miyah was thankfully walking over with the hot chocolate, which she placed in front of Fred.

The Alpha didn't ask her, so Fred grabbed her apron. "Miyah, am I easy to make friends with?" he asked.

Miyah didn't seem to know what to say to that. "Uh," she said, stalling, clearly trying to find a way of saying what she was thinking without hurting any feelings. "Would you like the truth, or a sugary version of the truth?" she asked.

Double Shot Long Black Man's expression promptly morphed into concern. "You said it's been a rough few months," he said. "How can I help?"

Fred stared at the floor, then he shrugged. He hadn't let go of Miyah's apron. His brain was doing stupid things, like making him grab onto a familiar person for safety, thinking in circles and failing to think of any good ideas, and forgetting the name of a person he had just been introduced to and didn't want to offend.

Double Shot Long Black Man was going to be thrilled if he bonded Fred only to find out that Fred had already forgotten his name.

"Oh, yeah, that's classic Fred for you," Miyah said. "You try to be nice, he pulls away. He's got issues."

The Alpha frowned. "How can I help?" he asked again.

Finally, the door chimed, signalling someone new entering the shop. Fred turned to see Dad walking inside, looking precisely how he always did - completely unaffected.

Dad zoned in on Fred and stalked to the table as the Alpha frowned at him. "Up," Dad said. "Your mum's in hospital. Car. Now."

Fred jumped at the lie. He assumed it to be a lie, anyway. "Is she okay?" he asked, rising quickly and glancing at the Alpha.

"Wants to see you," Dad said.

"Look, I'm sorry, this is obviously the worst time, but I can't let you go without getting your number," the Alpha said.

"In the car, now," Dad said. "Miyah can give him your number."

"I can't believe you know my name," Miyah said, amazed. "He _talks_ about me?"

Fred walked to the door.

"Wait," the Alpha called, and Fred couldn't keep going. He stopped short, pliant, obedient, and terrified.

Dad turned on the Alpha. "Listen, kid," he snapped, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket.

The Alpha flinched at being called a kid, stunned. Whether he was stunned that anyone had dared call him a kid or stunned that a Beta had dared, Fred didn't know.

"My wife is lying on a hospital bed with god only knows how many snapped ribs because the chemo drugs have made her fall down my goddamn staircase and you're holding me up," Dad growled, low in his throat, flipping through his wallet until he found his business cards.

Fred wondered who the real animal in the room was. Dad, with his growl, his lies, and his confidence - or Double Shot Long Black Man, the coffee snob Alpha with a forgettable name?

"Now, you can either trust that my kid will be here tomorrow and you can meet up with him then, or you can tell him he can't move, and I'll pick him up and carry him," Dad said, and put his card on the table.

Fred stood at the door and bit his lip over and over. Mum wasn't having chemotherapy, and they didn't have a staircase, but Dad had always had a poker face and it was a quick way to get Fred out of this situation. He just hoped he didn't ruin it by blindly obeying everything the Alpha said.

"Usually an Omega's father doesn't let their sons bond Alphas they don't know, and I can't - I just can't - we're hyper-compatible," Double Shot Long Black Man said, floundering and desperate. "That's - that's like soulmates. I can't just-"

Dad snorted and pointed at Fred. "Look at that boy's hair," he said. "Is that the hair of a boy whose father polices his social life? It ain't me you'll have to convince."

With no further ado, Dad grabbed Fred by the arm and dragged him from the shop.

The Alpha followed them to the car. Dad manhandled Fred into the front seat, then walked to the driver's side.

_"Stop,"_ the Alpha said.

Fred did. His entire body obeyed. He tensed, stayed still, and he simply _stopped_.

Miyah, who had been watching from the open shop door, froze as well.

Dad didn't stop. He didn't even pause. He got into the car, reversed out of the parking space, and drove away.

"You're obeying him, aren't you?" Dad asked.

Fred couldn't nod. He'd stopped.

"I think I'm immune," Dad said. "Nice."

Fred's body eventually stopped _stopping_ , and he fell to tears in the front seat of the car while his Dad tried to get him into the house.

Fred wound up shivering on the couch and clinging to a pillow for comfort.

"Unconditional, all right?" Dad said and retreated to the garage. When he came back inside, he had his drill in his hand and he started taking the furniture apart with it. "I can get a new job in Bays easy enough," he said.

While it was not a hug, it was enough to make Fred feel loved.

Mum brought chips home for an early lunch, and the family talked.

"He only let me go because we stalled him with a cover story," Fred said. "I said I was having a rough few months, Miyah said I wasn't easy to get along with, then Dad came in and said you had cancer and fell down the stairs. It all fit together. It only worked because our stories happened to match."

"We need to plan this all out, then," Mum said. "We need panic codes, safe zones, meet up places, you know, spy stuff."

"I've already got a shotgun," Dad said. "And if today's any indication, I'm not affected when they order people around."

"If Fred can never leave the range of your shotgun, we might as well let him get snatched, because he'll never have any freedom like that either," Mum said.

Dad shrugged. "Shotgun's satisfying, though."

Mum smirked at Dad with the exasperated fondness of the truly smitten. Fred didn't even feel like gagging at them, he was that depressed.

"Where will we move?" Fred asked.

"Either Bays or Perlgrave," Mum said. "Whichever one has the better house at short notice."

They spent the rest of the night making plans and getting their stories straight. They figured out what they'd do if an Alpha showed up at Fred's work. They figured out what they'd do if one knocked on the front door. They agreed on meeting places all over the state should Fred get caught, and then escape. Where he would go, where he would hide.

Where they'd move next.

They conveniently ignored the fact that a bond was permanent. No Omega escaped a bond. If Fred was bitten, it was over. If his parents ever saw him again, it would be because his Alpha chose to let them, or his Alpha had decided he didn't want Fred anymore.

That would kill Fred, one way or another. Rejection sickness was a leading cause of death for Omegas, right up there with domestic violence and _'Woops, they tripped'_.

"You gonna change your name again, honey?" Mum asked.

"Yeah," Fred said. "I'll be Red this time."

"Alfie would be nice," Mum said. "Or Freddie."

"I'll be Red."

"Eddie's always good."

"Eddie can suck it. I'll be Red."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's tropes:
> 
> !Heats Suck Balls  
> !Coffee Shop AU  
> !Soulmates (and not in a good way)  
> !Working Retail/Customer Service Is Soul Draining  
> !The Casual Sexism Instilled By A Truly Patriarchal Society  
> !A+ Parenting (but without the sarcasm)  
> !The Beta That Refuses To Take Any Of That Alpha Bullshit, Thanks  
> !It Took More Than Half The Fic To Properly Explain The Title


	12. Step Twelve: Bleed Out In A Treehouse

Red wasn't planning on having an abnormal day. Omegas went to great care to have normal days, and Red had his routine down.

He would go into his bunker at twilight, when his scent glands would make a smell that made Alphas go nuts. He would shut the door and use tape to seal it up, so that his smells couldn't escape. He would wake up early, which was normal for a person who went into his room before twilight every evening. He would leave the bedroom early in the morning and take a shower, where he would scrub hard at the scent glands on his neck and his inner thighs. He hadn't had a heat in three months, and he didn't see one coming any time soon, but he didn't get to be twenty-two and unbonded by not being careful. Heats would make him extra smelly, and he might not realise one was coming, so he washed as though he was in the thick of one every day.

He would wash his hair in the most flowery of shampoos. He dyed it every week like clockwork - that was a great tip he'd gotten from _Allison_ , one of his Omega friends. Red hadn't seen her on their chat app in a month. That meant she was gone. _Tree_ had gone silent too, but at least _Tree_ had said goodbye.

_Typing this on my phone before I surrender it to storage. Going into the House now. Not coming out until an Alpha buys me, which could take a while, and until then I'll be learning shit about Ancient House culture, how to fit in and please Alphas. Lame._

_I think we might have lived near each other. You mentioned a parade once and I think it was one that happened near me. I hope you never get snatched, but if you do and our Alphas know each other, maybe we'll actually meet. Maybe they'll let us set our spawn up on playdates together._

_Love you Alias. Love you Allison, even though you'll never see this. Alias, I know shit all about you except a country, so even if the one that buys me wants locations out of me, I've got nothing to give him. Stay safe._

_-Tree_

Red had three other chat groups with varying numbers of Omegas or Alphas pretending to be Omegas in them, but Allison and Tree were his first Omega friends. They were gone, but they would always hold a special place in his heart.

This week, Red's hair was blonde. Next week, he would put some green streaks in it. The Alphas could smell the dye, and they didn't like it, so they'd stop sniffing with their wolf senses and switch to their human ones. If they stopped sniffing, they might not realize that there was an Omega nearby.

Red hadn't had a heat in three months. The longer the space between heats, the more of a bitch they tended to be, so Red was absolutely not looking forward to his next one.

The least uncomfortable heats he'd ever had had been two weeks apart, like clockwork, lasting only a few hours each, and with minimal mental distress as a follow up, but that had been when an Alpha had been consistently near him, which didn't seem to be the case anymore. That was a good thing, and Red was only going to regret it when the next heat came.

Judging by the amount of time he had gone without one, the next heat was going to last a full night, and the week after it would bring melancholy of the most terrible sort. Mum would probably take time off work and make Red cups of tea until they ran out of mugs and offer him more ice cream than he could eat. Dad might even do that weird thing where he would stand outside Red's door in the middle of the night, as though he wanted to say something, then walk away without saying anything.

Red often dreamed of Alphas when he had heats. Plait Man was the least unpleasant, and Red woke up more often than he liked to admit with slick on his thighs and the image of long brown hair burned into his retinas. He dreamed of Double Shot Long Black Man, too, but those dreams were horrible, and all rather religiously involved getting his arse hammered, but not in a good way. Usually Red's dreams revolved around Latte Man, who was the one that brought on Red's presentation. Red had burnt himself making his coffee, and the man had chuckled. He hadn't even figured out what Red was, but Red couldn't forget him and couldn't banish his little laugh from his mind.

Red didn't get wet dreams right. They all seemed to be nightmares in some way. Plait Man's dreams were the best, but they always ended with Plait Man looking disgusted and telling Red to run on home and take a shower.

Red had accepted that he wasn't going to live a normal life quite some time ago, and the terrible dreams seemed to be part of the abnormality of his life.

So was the moving - as they'd done it twice now, everything they owned was easily flat packed. Some things they had decided not to bother with at all. They'd buy a new, cheap couch next move and leave their current one behind, and they had folding chairs for the dining table which they would take, but the table itself would get left behind. Everything was mentally categorized: this is what we grab when we go, this is what we don't.

Red kept all of his things packed. His wardrobe was where he kept his suitcases. He slept on a Japanese futon, because he could roll it up and take it with him. A fresh mattress that didn't smell like him was hell for a heat. Mum had a bad back, but moving mattresses sucked and couldn't be done quick and easy, so she'd get a new mattress every time.

It wasn't cheap.

Red didn't know how many times they could do this before they just didn't have the money anymore. He had asked, but neither of his parents answered the question.

 _"Eh,"_ had been Dad's monotonous reply.

Dad had changed his name after the last move, and with it lost his ability to easily get a new job. He was doing a lot of solo trade work, but the prime way of getting that kind of work was word of mouth and people having his number on a magnet on their fridge, which wasn't happening in a brand new town.

 _"We'll do it until we're so poor we all starve to death,"_ was all Mum had to say about it.

Red didn't point out the flaw in her logic. They'd fail to pay rent before they starved, or they'd fail to scrounge up a bond for a new place to live when Red was running from an Alpha. In that circumstance, Red would either be stuck outside after twilight or he'd have to go into an Omega House to avoid a twilight bonding. Starving wasn't on the cards.

Red would break and give up before either of his parents did, and he would never be able to express how much he loved them for it.

Now they lived in Perlgrave, at the base of the mountains, and Red loved it. It was calm, quiet and remote. No Alphas lived nearby, and the city was an hour's train away. There was no reason for an Alpha to come here.

Red felt good enough in Perlgrave to go out. He hadn't gotten another job yet, and he wasn't dumb enough to attend a college. Schools were rumour mills, and word might get out that there was an Omega there. He stayed inside most of his afternoons, and spent his mornings ambling about in the woods.

That day, he'd gotten up early, showered, made himself smell like _everything_ except for himself, and then he went out the back door. Their house backed onto the woods and he went straight in. His own repeated traffic had carved a path in the underbrush and it was no longer a struggle to get from his house to the dirt track that went through the woods. He'd only seen the track used once, and it had been by a senile old man in a ute. The threat level there was pretty low.

Red followed the track at an amble, avoiding sweat, for precisely ten minutes, then stopped in shock. There was a mountain bike lying on its side, completely unattended in the middle of the track. The front wheel was bent.

Red came closer. There was no one to be seen nearby. He didn't like drawing attention to himself - being an Omega does that to a person - so he didn't call out.

Instead, he veered off the track and took a difficult but more secluded route to where he was going. His intention was to forget the bike completely, and hopefully whoever had ridden it, but he had no such luck.

Red's treehouse loomed into view.

Normally, Red avoided the kind of labour required to build treehouses. It produced sweat and sweat was smelly. The treehouse was a sign of his willpower breaking, because making it at all had been a remarkably stupid decision. He loved it anyway.

It was only a platform that he had lashed together in the fork of a tree, but he had made it with his bare hands, and it was therefore the greatest thing in the world to him. He had nailed offcuts of wood from his father's shed to the trunk of the tree, and as he went to grab one to climb up, he saw the blood.

So much blood.

He took a step back and looked up. Something was in his treehouse. Something big, bloody, and _furry_.

Only Alphas were likely to shift. It was either a real wolf up his treehouse, or an Alpha. Wolves weren't even local to this area, and a real wolf wouldn't have climbed up into a treehouse ... would it?

Red seriously considered going back home.

But it was _his_ treehouse, damn it!

The Alpha had not moved, and the blood was pretty full on, so Red wondered how he could get out of this situation intact. Either he could leave and lose his treehouse and his morals, or he could stay and risk getting bonded. There was no one out here to prove he had been bitten in the morning, not the twilight. This Alpha could do as he liked and get away with it.

Eventually morals won out, and Red called out. "Hey," he said.

The wolf did not move. Red couldn't see it breathing.

"Fuck," Red said, and climbed up to the platform. He hadn't built it with anything but his own weight in mind, and the wolf looked like it weighed three times more than Red did, so it was with some apprehension that he pulled himself up.

The wolf was snow white, and if Red wasn't terrified of it, he'd have thought it was beautiful. Instead, he thought it was morbid. There was blood around a wound on its belly and all over the treehouse, but it wasn't fresh, and wasn't leaking out anymore, that Red could see.

"You alive?" Red asked, feeling ridiculously out of his depth. How did one check the pulse on a wolf? Red decided that he'd rather just check if it was breathing instead, then he groaned. There was no way to check the breathing of the wolf without getting close to its snout.

Red inched closer and put his hand out. The creature was breathing, but barely.

Red slipped his phone from his pocket and dialled for an ambulance. He waited in terrified silence for about three minutes, then the Alpha woke up. It did not move, but it looked at him and let out a whine.

"Ambulance is coming," Red said.

The Alpha didn't move, but it kept looking at Red with glazed blue eyes.

When the paramedics arrived, they were not pleased. "How the fuck are we supposed to get it down?" they asked.

"How did it even get up there?"

"Must've climbed up, then shifted."

They ended up stabilising the Alpha right there in the treehouse.

Red slipped away as quietly as he could. He did not leave them his name, his number, or his address. He wasn't an idiot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's Tropes:
> 
> !The Slow Crumbling Of The MC's Social Support Network  
> !A+ Parenting (unsarcastically) As Mum And Dad Are A Bastion Of Solidarity Amongst The Crumbling Of The Support Network  
> !Shapeshifters  
> !The White Wolf  
> !Life Saving


	13. Step Thirteen: Talk To Mum

Three weeks later, Red still had not returned to the treehouse. He wanted to, if only to scrub up the blood, but whenever he got up the courage, the thought that there had been an Alpha that close to his house crept back into his mind, and he got scared.

Red was weeding the garden bed under the front fence when the car pulled up. He hadn't gotten a new job yet, and therefore wasn't contributing to the rent, so he was a bit chore-happy lately. The bins weren't going to curb themselves, and there were some weeds shooting up, so he figured he might as well grab them while he was there.

It was early afternoon. Red didn't make a habit of being out much in the afternoons. Afternoons turned into twilights, and twilights turned into kidnappings.

The car was a beat-up old thing that Red didn't pay any mind to, but the man that came out of it was not a beat-up old thing. He was Red's age but tall, wide and muscular. His hair was somewhat curly, and it got slightly blonder as it got longer. He had a happy look about him, like he was the most cheerful person in the world, and nothing could possibly change that.

Red knew instantly that this was an Alpha. They weren't hard to spot, once you knew how, and Red definitely knew how. Alphas carried themselves straighter and they breathed faster, rushing scents into their nostrils. They were bigger than average, had more muscles than seemed appropriate, and they had heavier footsteps due to their dense muscles and bones.

Red saw the Alpha get out of the car and promptly started to flip out internally. Red was at the curb with the bins, and the Alpha was between him and the gate into the yard. There was no way this Alpha was here for anything but Red himself. It had to have something to do with the treehouse.

Had he left a scent trail between the treehouse and home? Were all his scent drowning measures for nothing?

Red put his head down and tried to make himself look small.

"Hey," the Alpha said. "You live here?"

Red shook his head before he knew what he was doing. An Alpha couldn't know where he lived, not again. They couldn't move this often. His parents would go bankrupt.

Every time they moved, the inevitable crept closer, and the Omega Houses started to seem like they were the least unpleasant option.

"You all right?" the Alpha asked. He stepped closer and Red immediately stepped back.

The Alpha stopped and looked at the gate, noticing Red's predicament, but not seeming like he understood it. "Hey," he said, in the awkward tone of the wrongfooted. "I didn't mean to frighten you."

The Alpha took a small step closer, and Red tried not to run. Pissed off Alphas were a risk - they tended to be a bit full of themselves - and besides, when one runs from a predator, one risks tempting them into giving chase.

The Alpha suddenly stepped back, sniffing, and Red saw the look cross his face. The _‘_ _oh, that's an Omega’_ look, the look of recognition that spelled a change of house, name, and life for Red.

But if he was having that look now, that meant that he hadn't known Red was an Omega when he tracked him down. Why was he even here then, if not because Red was an Omega?

"Oh. Guess that explains how I wound up in a treehouse," the Alpha said.

"It - it does?" Red asked, confused.

"Yeah," the Alpha said. "I was in shock, they say. I must have scented you and gone to you for help. Hindbrain logic, you know? Smell an Omega, there must be a nest nearby, nests are safe, that sort of crazy."

Red had absolutely no idea what to do with that information.

"You've changed your hair - I didn't recognise you. I mean, you were a hazy white haloed blob last time I saw you, so I'm gonna let myself off the hook there," the Alpha said. He took a few purposeful steps back and put himself behind the front gate. He opened it and it swung forward in front of him, in a clear invitation.

To go through the gate and get inside, Red would have to walk toward the Alpha. Red seriously considered climbing the fence, but the last thing he wanted to do was offend the Alpha. He didn't fancy being taught any lessons on respect and an Omega's place.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to hunt you down," the Alpha said. "I found a textbook at the treehouse. It had notes and letters from this address in it."

Oh, so _that_ was where Red's Modern History book was. He _knew_ it had been a bad idea to study in the treehouse.

"I'm not stalking, I swear," the Alpha said.

Red felt his shoulders slump a little in defeat. He couldn't run - few people could outrun an Alpha. He would have to take the Alpha's word for it. He crept toward the gate slowly.

"I'm Jethro," the Alpha said. "I came to thank you."

"I'm Red, sir," Red said. Quiet and meek usually appeased them. That's what they said in the biology textbooks, anyway. It had worked last time, to a point. Shut up, do as you're told, don't fight it, don't run away. Just stand there and be terrified - that's how you deal with Alphas.

Like there was any other way.

"I'm not a sir," Jethro said. "Come on, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."

Red finally got closer, and Jethro smiled. Up close, Red could see the blue eyes of the wolf in his treehouse, but he could also see Jethro's teeth, and he didn't like that.

Those teeth could bond him. They were the enemy.

Red looked toward the house. He couldn't just walk away, that would be rude. He couldn't risk getting taught a lesson for being rude, but if he kept just standing there right in front of the Alpha, he might get nabbed.

"Mum," he called, but it came out weak and quiet. He'd hoped he might attract her attention from inside the house, so that if he got stolen there would at least be a witness, but instead he'd been so paralysed with fear that he'd kept the meek and quiet tone from before.

Rather than be annoyed at his call for help, Jethro turned to the house. "Mum! Mum, could you come out here?" His voice projected by just changing tone. Red was glad for this, because if the Alpha had yelled, Red might've pissed himself.

Red's mother came to the door. She annoyed the hell out of Red some of the time, but that was what happened when one was an adult but still lived with their parents.

Red loved her. He loved her so, so much, and he didn't _want_ to be kidnapped. He didn't want to be another Omega lost to the Alphas that could just walk up and _take_ them, bond them with a bite and steal them away from their families.

Mum's face fell at the sight of the Alpha. She hadn't mastered the art of telling Alpha from unusually tall and strong yet, but she had mastered the art of deciphering Red's deer in the headlights look. She stalked right up the front yard and pulled Red close.

Jethro smiled. He raised his hands as though he was surrendering, but all it did was remind Red of how much bigger Jethro was, and how powerful his hands were.

"Sorry," Jethro said. "I really didn't mean to scare you like this. I had no idea. I wouldn't have come if I'd known."

"Red, go inside, and ... put the kettle on," Mum said.

Red knew it was an excuse. _'_ _Go put the kettle on_ _,'_ like they would invite the Alpha in to talk over tea, like it wasn't a ploy to get Red into the house and behind a locked door as fast as possible.

Red ran like hell. He probably should have walked, that would have been less obvious, but he couldn't help it.

He stood behind the locked front door, panting and terrified, and watched his mother talk to the wolf through the windowpane beside the door.

They had prepared for this. Mum would pretend they were happy to discuss it, as though selling her only son was on the table. She'd say they were busy right now, but she'd love to arrange a meeting later. If Jethro didn't buy it, she'd invite him in for tea and biscuits, and Red would run like fuck while he was distracted. If Jethro did buy it, they'd arrange a meeting, but by the time the meeting came, they'd be gone.

If Mum was ever concerned and wanted to give Red the _'Run right now,'_ signal, she would lift one of her feet from the ground and use her toes to scratch her other calf.

Red would run, call Dad, and Dad would meet him at any of their prearranged safe spots. Mum would catch up later. They'd find a new life and a new house. Red would pick a new nickname. He had been Al, Fred, and Red, and he didn't want to try Ed or Eddie, but he was starting to run out of ideas.

Jethro and Mum were still talking, but Mum had relaxed a fraction. Both of her feet stayed firmly on the ground. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Jethro took it from her and typed in it.

Red wondered how he was managing to do it with such large hands. Maybe that was what Omegas were for - using their smaller fingers to accurately hit buttons on touchscreens.

Mum took the phone back and watched Jethro get into his car and leave. When she came back inside, Red actually did put the kettle on. "What did he say?" he asked.

"He said that he just came to thank you for helping him at the treehouse," Mum said. "He seemed honest enough - he got side-tracked and told me a story about a time he tried to track a pot noodle in his apartment and couldn't even do that. He said they have to learn how to track Omegas, like how sniffer dogs have to learn how to track drugs."

Red supposed that made logical sense. He didn't know if it was true or not, and he'd have to do some serious questioning on the internet to find out.

It would make some of his past encounters make sense if it was true. He'd been tracked to his school by an Alpha sitting across the street and sniffing, and he'd had a friend with him. Plait Man had tracked him from the other side of a mall.

Double Shot Long Black Man hadn't sniffed him out after months of steady contact. Double Shot Long Black Man must never have learned to track Omega scents, because he'd been planning on buying from an Omega House.

"I think he wanted to repay you for saving him," Mum said, sounding exactly as baffled as Red felt. "He made me take his number just in case I thought of anything he could do. He said he wouldn't come back. He said he didn't even know you were an Omega until you reacted so terrified."

Red wrapped his hands around his middle and shivered violently. Mum gave him ice cream, Dad brought chips home for dinner, and they had a horrible conversation about moving.

They all agreed that staying was a huge risk. There was absolutely no good reason to stay. The best case scenario was that Jethro was exactly as he claimed and nothing would happen. The worst was that Jethro was a liar, this was a trap, and Red was going to get snatched.

"I'm tired," Red said. "I just don't want to move yet."

So they stayed, and they risked whatever might come of Jethro knowing where they lived.

Red went to bed early that night and taped his door extra carefully. When he went to sleep, he dreamed of petting a white wolf in his treehouse.

Then he dreamed of Jethro's hands as the heat took him over.

But that was it - just his hands. Red came in and out of consciousness, thinking about Jethro's hands and nothing else. They weren't especially calloused, but they weren't soft either. They were strong and had pronounced knuckles, but hands were hands, really, and Red wasn't sure why they had affected him so much.

The hands didn't touch him, even in his dream. Eventually, they weren't enough, and Red felt so needy that when Latte Man appeared out of nowhere and laughed at him for his stupidity, he didn't object. He simply let Jethro's hands fall from his attention and be replaced by another Alpha.

It was the first time that Red had ever spent a heat without the Alpha that had caused it.

Toward the height of it, when Red was most desperate and Latte Man most likely to laugh at him, Jethro showed up again. It was not just his disembodied hands this time, but his whole body, with his white teeth and blue eyes and smile. "Didn't mean to scare you," he said, then he got into his car and drove away.

It was the first time Red had ever learned an Alpha's name and bothered to retain it, but it would not be the last time he woke up calling it out, slick still wet, uncomfortable and gross on his thighs.

It was the first time that he'd ever come during a heat, and it had been to the dream of an Alpha that would leave him alone. It would not be the last time that he would get off to exactly that thought.

When he came out in the morning, he tripped over his Dad, who had been asleep in the hall with his shotgun by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's Tropes:
> 
> !Alpha Hindbrain Thinks Omegas Are Safe  
> !MC Is Slipping And Starting To Make Dumb Decisions  
> !A+ Parenting (non-sarcastically)  
> !Spy Stuff! Safe Zones! Secret Signals!  
> !The MC Has A Super Weird Kink   
> !Hand Kink (No, That's Not The Weird Kink)  
> !Dad Has A Shotgun
> 
> Seriously, how do Alphas use phones? I've never met a big guy that doesn't get super pissed with his phone. All the time. Autocorrect works overtime and whenever they have to manually type a weird word that isn't in the phone dictionary it takes them thirty tries. Every time I read an ABO fic they're always sending texts and stuff and im just sitting here like 'nah, that's not how touch screens work'. Surely they'd all be typing with their pinky fingers to get a more accurate read, or using a stylus, or they take longer to text because autocorrect gives them six different options for words and they have to scroll and pick the 4th because their fingers are so big that they hit five different letters every tap. 
> 
> These are the weird things that pull me out of immersion, lol.


	14. Step Fourteen: Pick up the Phone

Jethro did not return, and Red slowly allowed his life to return to normal. He went back to the treehouse armed with disinfectant, sponges, and a bucket of water.

The treehouse had been painted bright red. A note had been carved into the tree trunk.

_SORRY_

_CDNT GET BLD OUT_

_-J_

Red didn't know what to make of this, so he steadfastly refused to think about it. He rather liked his red treehouse, though.

Red didn't think about Jethro consciously. Subconsciously, though, Jethro got into his dreams, right there with Plait Man, Double Shot Long Black Man, and Latte Man.

Double Shot Long Black Man was always the nightmare Red got when he was scared of kidnappings. Latte Man was the nightmare Red got when he felt like trash. Plait Man was the dream Red got when he wanted someone to just swoop in, rescue him, and make it all better.

Jethro would show up when Red wasn't expecting a dream. Jethro showed up when Red went to sleep thinking about the next stage of his treehouse or going for a walk early the next morning.

It was often not sexual. Red would see Jethro in his dream and he'd step back, say: "Didn't mean to scare you," and then he would disappear.

After those dreams, Red would wake up and rub one out with the speed and satisfaction he'd had before he presented, then he would go about his business trying not to think of why he could get off so easily to an Alpha's not-so-special hands and his willingness to leave Red alone.

Red got another job at another cafe. He liked making coffee, and the smell of the beans was a good scent-mask. He was still scared of long blacks, though - especially strong ones. He made them anyway, despite his shaking hands. He told himself it was exposure therapy, and he was going to stop shaking if he just kept making them.

Dad nearly banned Red from the shop, telling him the job was too risky. Mum nearly slapped Dad for trying to deny Red what little freedom he had, and they yelled at each other in the worst fight Red had ever seen them have. To interrupt it, Red asked how many years they could keep doing this without Red contributing to the rent, and Dad wouldn't answer.

Mum and Dad made up that same night, with speed only explainable by the theory that they had never really been mad at each other in the first place. Dad bought Mum three tubs of ice cream, Mum made his favourite for dinner, and no grudges were held. Red wondered, in a detached fashion, if he would ever be able to scream at his Alpha and be given ice cream for it in exchange for a lasagna.

Alphas came in every now and then, but they didn't become regulars. Red was fine with this. Consistent exposure could cause a heat, but Alphas in infrequent doses were fine.

Red's hair dye, extreme fragrances, and his avoidance of being outside anywhere near twilight kept him as safe as it always had.

Until it didn't.

There was a pack of them, milling about like flies. They were at the coffee shop, talking over coffee. They all had visible bond marks blackening their necks, over their scent glands.

Red usually didn't mind bonded Alphas. They cared less about Omegas as they already had one of their own, and they wouldn't go mental and bond when they smelled an Omega at twilight.

"There's one here, no doubt about it," one of the Alphas said.

"She's masking her scent well," another said.

"She's somewhere about, regularly enough to leave a lingering."

"That smell, though - what the hell is it? I can't tell. Smells like my father's armchair."

"Smells exactly like my Omega."

"Smells like my mother's wool soap."

The three Alphas looked at each other, considering. "Ah," one said. "Smells like something that belongs at home."

"Good catch. Someone's going to go all weepy over this one. _Boo, hoo, she smells just like my dead mummy's perfume._ "

Red went to the coffee maker and put it to grinding. Some fresh smells might mask his own.

"If we just hang around, we'll know. She'll go into heat from us being around. Whoever disappears, that's the one. From there it's just a matter of asking the right questions."

Red texted his mother with his panic code.

_I've got a real hankering for chips_.

She replied immediately.

_There's some in the freezer._

Red slipped out the back and Mum picked him up from the shop. They went home and Mum started looking at new houses and neighbourhoods on the internet.

Red was tired. He liked his treehouse. He didn't want to go.

"Even if they know it was you because you disappeared, what would they do? You lock yourself up in your bunker at twilight," Mum said.

"They were all bonded," Red said. "They weren't here to find themselves an Omega. They were here to steal one and sell it. The twilight rule doesn't apply. They find out what I am, then they'll snatch me at whatever time they like."

"That would be illegal," Mum said.

"They'd be selling to a rich Ancient House Alpha who's building a harem. Who's going to convict an Ancient House Alpha? They can make people obey them with their voices. Betas can make it as illegal as they like, it will never matter."

Mum tutted unhappily. She kept looking at her website. "Dunnings looks nice. There's a river, see?"

Red fell into tears. "I built a treehouse," he said, sobbing.

Mum served him some ice cream. It didn't make him feel any better, but Red ate it anyway because it always made Mum feel better when he did.

When twilight came, Red went into his bunker, but not before he went snooping through his mother's phone to find the number Jethro had put into it.

Jethro Fielder's number was now in Red's phone. He dialled the number and waited, safe in his bunker, with one thought going through his head, over and over.

_I don't want to be Eddie_.

_I don't want to be Eddie._

_I don't want to be -_

"You've reached City Crematorium, you kill 'em, we grill 'em," came Jethro's voice.

Red laughed. He hadn't expected to - he'd expected this to be a most awkward and awful conversation. He'd expected it to be as heavy and horrible as he felt, but then Jethro had completely sideswiped him with that terrible line.

"Holy crap, that's the first time anyone has ever laughed at that. I was starting to think it wasn't funny."

Red couldn't stop laughing, which was weird, because Alphas usually made him go so quiet. Maybe it was the phone? Maybe because Jethro wasn't in close proximity, Red wasn't getting all messed up by his pheromones or something.

Red still wasn't sure what pheromones actually were, and at this point he was too afraid to ask.

"Alright, come on, the jig is up. Who's this? Don't make me guess. Stacy, right? Well, guess what, bitch, Joran gave you the wrong number, and I ain't him. I'm too hung up on the unattainable, sweetheart, and your tits are just too big for me."

"It's Red," Red said. Shit. Would Jethro even remember his name? Half of the time, Red couldn't even remember his own name. It changed too often.

"Holy fuck, no shit," Jethro said. The phone was muffled slightly, and Red strained to hear. " _Oi, fuck off, dickhead, this is important_." Jethro cleared his throat, coming through clearly again. "Sorry about that. Joran - my brother - he keeps giving girls he doesn't like my number, so most of my calls wind up with me trying to explain how totally off dating I am right now."

"Oh," Red said. "I'm sorry to call you at all, I just - Mum said you asked if there was something you could do."

"I sure did," Jethro said. "Anything. You name it, lifesaver. You saved my life, now it belongs to you, etcetera."

Red bit his lip. When he had saved Jethro, the last reaction he would have expected was that one. _'You saved me, now I'm obsessed with you,'_ was what he'd expected. _'You saved me, now I'm going to save you,'_ was one he'd daydreamed about, but it always turned into a daymare when Red said he didn't want to be saved but Jethro did it anyway.

Owning Jethro's life, however ... that actually sounded kind of cool. He'd never do anything with it, but it sounded cool.

"I ... why are you off dating?" Red asked.

"You want to know why I'm off dating? Really?" Jethro said, his tone light and teasing.

"I didn't know Alphas dated," Red said.

"Not normally, no, normally they're a gigantic throng of throbbing wankers. They usually kidnap people, maul them a little, then pretend like it's love. It's ever so romantic, didn't you know?" Jethro said.

Red was speechless.

"Sorry," Jethro said. "Sometimes I do this thing where I talk when I should shut up. I didn't mean to make you go all quiet again."

"It's okay," Red said. "I didn't know any Alphas felt that way, that's all."

"Oh, there's no pretending it's normal, but hey, fuck normal, right? Normal's terrible."

Red smiled sadly. He held the phone a little tighter. "Yeah, normal's terrible," he said.

"You okay, lifesaver? You sound a little sad."

"Why are you off dating?" Red asked.

"Smooth change of subject there, man, way to go. Your subtlety needs work."

"You're just evading the question," Red said.

Jethro was quiet for long enough that Red started to get self-conscious.

"Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it," Red said.

"No, that's fine, you were right, anyway," Jethro said. "The truth is that I'm hung up on someone I can't have, and it's sorta messing me up. I do this thing where I project my problems onto other people, right, so the last thing I need right now is a boyfriend."

Red felt a little bolstered by Jethro’s use of the word boyfriend. Jethro at least swung that way, that was helpful.

"If you're hung up on someone you can't have, would a bond, I dunno, override it? If one's a crush, and the other's a bond?" Red asked.

"Wow, this is an intense line of questioning," Jethro said. "Yeah, sure, it would totally override it. But short of, like, _kidnapping_ , where am I about to get a bond? I ain't going to pay some rich-ass Alpha douchebag to sell me their kid. That's just kidnapping with extra steps."

Red laughed. He'd been apprehensive when he'd thought up his plan, but now ... now he was a little excited. "You could bond me," he said.

There was a clunk, and then the phone hung up.

Wow. Rude.

Moments later, Jethro's number came onto the screen of Red's phone. Red answered. "Hello?" he asked dubiously.

"Sorry, I legit just dropped my phone," Jethro said. " _Shut up, dickhead_ ," was muffled. "Sorry, that wasn't for you. I just dropped my phone and when I tried to pick it back up I hung up on you and my dickhead brother thinks it's hilarious."

"It is kinda hilarious," Red said, but he was trembling.

"Comedic gold, I'm sure," Jethro drawled. "Seriously, though, _what the fuck_?"

"Sorry," Red said. "I just ... it's complicated."

"I sure as fuck hope so," Jethro said. "I mean, what the fuck, man? Are you okay?"

Red sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay."

"Wow. I totally believe you," Jethro said sarcastically. "Like, three hundred percent, I believe you. You're perfectly okay."

"Sorry," Red said.

"Let me take you out to breakfast," Jethro said, then snapped another muffled _"S_ _hut up, dickhead,"_ presumably to Joran.

"Breakfast?"

"We should talk about this. Come on. You're making nutters suggestions and I'm worried you're gonna get yourself hurt. You saved my life, let me save yours. I'll pick you up. Eight ok?"

Red nodded, then remembered he was on the phone. "Okay," he said.

"Promise me you won't go out. Promise me you're inside and you're _safe_."

"Okay."

"Not okay. Say you promise," Jethro said.

"I promise. I'm inside. I'm safe. I'll be there tomorrow."

"You better," Jethro said. "I owe you, remember?"

"Sorry I bothered you," Red said.

"I'm not sorry you bothered me," Jethro said. "Bother me. Seriously. I'm totally okay with it."

Red smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said.

"You damn well better," Jethro said. "If you're not there at eight, I'm gonna tell on you to your mum. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay," Red said. "Thank you."

"Yeah, it's okay - no, no it's not. Thank me tomorrow. Not accepting it today. You thank me tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay," Jethro said. "Okay. I'll - yeah. I'll see you then."

"Okay," Red said. "Bye."

"Yeah. Bye," Jethro said.

Jethro didn't hang up first. Red did, because he needed to let out a shaky, overwhelmed breath of air and he didn't want Jethro to hear it.

What the hell had just happened?

Jethro _had_ to be raised by Betas. There was no other way to explain him. But even that hardly explained him. He was too ... normal.

Alphas that were raised with Betas were rare to begin with, as the birth rate among Betas was skewed toward Omegas. They faced a different challenge than Omegas, too - their young lives weren't about hiding, they were about being a top dog in a society that didn't believe in top dogs.

Alphas were born as Alphas. They were exactly as dominant and aggressive in childhood as they were in adulthood, and it didn't take them long to learn that they could order people around. Disciplining them was hard, controlling them even harder, and physically overpowering them almost impossible.

How was Jethro so well adjusted? An Alpha parent could control an Alpha child with discipline, orders, and the threat of disownment and subsequent loss of wealth. Beta parents could barely manage to keep them out of prison.

Red had no idea what Jethro was, where he had come from, or why he had been stabbed in the woods, but Red wanted to know. He'd never wanted to know anything about an Alpha before. He learned only what he needed to, to keep himself safe.

Feelings weren't making themselves known. Red was curious, but still wary. He didn't care for Jethro much, but then again, Jethro had been able to make him laugh, which was a good sign. Red clearly had some attraction to Jethro's hands, which was weird, but Red had never been attracted to any part of an Alpha before, so by merit of nothing but his hands, Jethro was winning in looks.

It wasn't the beginnings of romance, but it was still a hell of a lot better than anything Red had ever felt toward any other Alpha. Red had not been swept off his feet, Jethro was probably dangerous, he clearly had enemies, but he was the only Alpha that Red believed capable of doing the only thing Red really wanted Alphas to do: _Fuck. Off._

It wasn't love, but Red was going to take it anyway, if Jethro would have him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a predictable chapter here, I think we all knew this phone call was going to happen :P
> 
> Today's tropes:
> 
> !Protag Can Only Get Off By Thinking About Love Interest (really fucked with this trope, hah. Usually it's about someone so emotionally invested they can't unravel the sex and the love. Here, it's because Red's so emotionally invested in Alphas leaving him alone that he gets off on it)  
> !Apologising With Food (pls teach your kids to resolve conflicts in a healthy way. show them how to have fights with their partners, how to say sorry, and how not to hold a grudge)  
> !Spy Stuff! Codewords :D  
> !wtf even are pheromones srsly guys  
> !Trying To Have An Important Conversation While A Sibling Will Not Stop Bothering You  
> !I Saved Your Life, Now It Belongs To Me (but in reverse! !You Saved My Life, Now I Belong To You)  
> !You Saved Me, Let Me Save You


	15. Step Fifteen: Try The Milkshakes

Red was sitting on the porch when Jethro's beat up car rumbled into the street. He hadn't seen the three Alphas on his street yet, but he figured it was only a matter of time. He was glad Jethro had beaten them to it.

"Does your Mum know you're coming out?" Jethro asked as Red got into the car.

"She's not my keeper," Red said.

"She sort of is, and that's okay," Jethro said. "Does she know?"

"No," Red said.

"Text her," Jethro said. "She gives a shit."

"I know, I give a shit too," Red said, and pulled out his phone.

"Okay," Jethro said. He pulled off the curb. "Capers or The Blue Frog?"

"What?" Red asked.

"Capers or The Blue Frog. For breakfast," Jethro said.

"I don't know either of those."

"Then pick the one that sounds better," Jethro said.

"Blue Frog," Red said, choosing at random.

"Thank fuck, I've got a hankering," Jethro said. His fingers tapped the wheel in a jittery, nervous manner.

Red typed up a text to his mother. His own fingers were shaking worse than Jethro's.

_I went out for breakfast with Jethro. I think you know why._

_I love you. You're the best_.

Red silenced his phone and turned off the vibrate setting.

Once he was done and had nothing to focus on, he felt the oncoming panic attack. He was in a small, enclosed space with an Alpha. Alphas could smell everything, given enough time and appropriate airflow - or lack thereof. Red wondered if Jethro could smell the slick that Red had scrubbed away extra hard that morning. His breathing quickened.

"Not gonna hurt you," Jethro said. "No matter what, not gonna hurt you."

Red nodded, shivering. "Sorry."

"Not gonna be pissed at you either. We're a legitimate threat, I get that. You've got every right to be scared."

Red nodded again. "Thanks."

The Blue Frog turned out to be two suburbs over.

When they got inside, Jethro went straight to a table and Red followed. Red felt a lot less worried in public. The cafe was hardly crowded, but there were enough people that there would be witnesses if something happened. Red had to remind himself that if something happened, it would be because he'd asked for it.

"So, lifesaver, what the fuck?" Jethro said.

Red bit his lip.

"Did you seriously call me up last night to ask me to bond you?"

Red blushed. "I ... well, yeah, I guess," he said.

"There must be more to this story," Jethro said. "Were there monkeys? Tell me. There were monkeys, right?"

Red laughed. It was just like the last night. He'd been feeling so heavy and scared, and then Jethro said something stupid and he felt better.

"No monkeys," Red said. "There were Alphas, though. Three of them."

Jethro shook his head. "It's not fair, is it? We shouldn't be allowed in packs. We should all go lone wolf style. That way we're more badass."

Red laughed. "They were all bonded, and they'd sniffed me out. They were just going to hang around until I went into heat, and then they'd figure out who the Omega was by who disappeared for a few days."

Jethro frowned. "Well, that's a sunny story. How'd you get out of that one?"

"I ran away and rang you," Red said.

Jethro frowned harder, but he put on a smile when a waitress came over.

"I, legit, _need_ a BLT," Jethro said imploringly.

"I haven't even looked at the menu," Red said.

"Whatever you do, don't order the waffles," Jethro said. "They'll eat you alive."

"I'll have the waffles," Red said.

"And to drink?"

"Orange juice," Red said, frowning a little as he regarded Jethro. Red had just disobeyed Jethro without even thinking about it. Was that because he wasn't as scared of Jethro as he was of the others? Was it because Jethro had said it as a joke?

Was Jethro just a really bad Alpha? If he was, that may have explained Red's steadily growing attraction to him.

Jethro frowned at Red disapprovingly. "You need a milkshake," he said.

"How do you know I need a milkshake?" Red asked.

"No, seriously. Just pick a flavour. We'll get the juice as well, I mean, I might be wrong," Jethro said, but he didn't sound like someone who thought he might be wrong.

"Caramel, please," Red told the waitress, playing along with Jethro's milkshake fascination.

"And chocolate," Jethro said.

The waitress left, and Jethro went back to frowning at Red. "So, the situation with the Alphas is still going on?" Jethro asked.

"Yeah," Red said.

"So you thought: hey, fuck it, let's pick Jethro instead?"

"Sort of," Red said. "It's more like ... the situation with those Alphas is still going on, but even if it stops, there will be other situations. Over and over, forever."

"So you thought: hey, fuck it, let's pick Jethro instead?" Jethro repeated.

Red bit his lip. "Sorry. When you put it that way, it sounds so ... mean, I guess."

"Oh, no, this is, like, next level romance right here." Jethro said, sounding strangely honest. "So, here's an idea, how about I take it down a notch? Let's stop this whirlwind of love right here, and downgrade to, like, a small tornado. How about I take care of your Alpha problem? Then, if and when that's over, you're still serious about bonding with me, we can talk about it."

"I don't know how you could hope to fix my Alpha problem. Maybe these three, but there will always be more," Red said.

" _Don't count on it_ ," Jethro growled.

Red flinched.

"Aww, fuck," Jethro said. "Did I take a bad tone? Tiny keeps telling me I've got tone issues."

"What are tone issues?" Red asked.

Jethro shrugged. "It's - you know how we can order people around, right? Well, it's like that, only I'm totally shit at it, and I can't do it on purpose, but I keep doing it by accident."

Red shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I'm just jumpy."

"Who could possibly fucking blame you?" Jethro said.

Every time he said stuff like that, Red liked him a little bit more.

"Seriously. Let me fix this Alpha problem. Then we'll talk about bonding. Jeesh."

"How would you fix it?" Red asked.

Jethro shrugged. "Hell if I know," he said. "Normally I just whack away at things until something works. This time, though, I'll probably have to ... I dunno, use _tact_ or something." Jethro crinkled his nose as though that was offensive. "Let me think on it a minute. It'll come to me."

Jethro thought while staring out the window for some time, then the milkshakes and Red's juice arrived.

"You were right, I did need this," Red said. The milkshakes were monstrosities. They were served in huge jugs with ice cream on top. A small heaping of jersey caramels topped Red's, while an entire brownie was poking out the top of Jethro's.

Jethro nodded, but he was still looking out the window, pondering.

Red allowed himself to be completely enamoured with the milkshake - could it be called a milkshake, anymore? The absurdity of it helped him to be distracted from Jethro's pondering.

Their food arrived, and Jethro slid his phone out of his pocket. He searched through his contact list for a while, before finding the name he was looking for. Red peeked. The contact was listed as: _Supreme Douchecanoe_. Jethro hit call and put the phone against his ear, his expression sour.

"Hey, Smelly," Jethro said. "Can I pick your brain, or are you busy?"

Red couldn't figure out what to eat. Waffles, or jersey caramels?

"You're always busy. Make time. Come on, how often do I call?"

Red sucked on a jersey caramel. Jethro quickly looked away.

"Never, I never call. Remember that time I got stabbed and nearly bled to death in a treehouse and I didn't call? Seriously, this is important. What? No, I don't need a lawyer. I'm, like, a paragon of justice. I have the moral compass of, just, I don't know, a really big compass."

Red laughed.

"All right, seriously, so, imagine you're a knight in, like, Sleeping Beauty, or whatever. And you've got to go and fight the dragon and save the princess, and all that shit, right? Moral code and honour and whatnot, no, but, hear me out, right, I really need your help. You are the only person who can help me with this."

The waffles were delicious, but Jethro kept talking with hand gestures, even though he was on the phone, and Red couldn't ignore Jethro's hand while it waved about, obnoxiously parading its big knuckles and one lone freckle.

It was just a hand. Why was it so fascinating?

"So, the princess is locked in the tower, and you're the one that's got to go save her, right, but! You're an Omega. So now you've got to hide it or else everyone's going to know, and they'll stop you from saving the princess. So what do you do?"

Red realised what Jethro meant about the waffles. They were going to be the death of him.

"Uh huh. God, Smelly, you are such a gigantic tosser," Jethro said. "No, you cannot go bond to an Alpha to get him to do it for you. It's got to be you ... No ... No, oh, for fuck's sake, it's a magical fairy realm, dumbass, that's why it has to be you ... I dunno - prophecy, there's always a prophecy. So how do you ... Quit telling me you'd bond with an Alpha, that's, like, the opposite of the point I'm trying to prove. This is why I don't call you, you twat. Wait, what? Say that again."

Jethro picked the bacon out of his sandwich and took a bite of it, listening hard and making animated faces as he did, even while he chewed.

"Holy crap," Jethro said. "Are you for real? Is that a thing? And, yeah, trust me, we're on top of the hair dye already. No - _no, this fantasy character will not take up smoking_ , wait, no, what the fuck is a snake plant? Oh, those things. Yeah, of course I know those things, you've got like seventy of them. Okay. Okay. I - wait, really? That's a fucking thing? How the crap do you even know this shit? No, no I do not want an answer to that question. You should write a book, man, you know too much shit. What? Me? No, I'm not writing a book. Why would you think I was writing a book? Mores the point, given you have all these crazy ideas, why the fuck would you bother bonding with an Alpha in the first place? Fucker would slow you down. No. No, it would not make a better story if the Alpha did it. That's the definition of a boring story. You know what, never mind. You're a complete and total twat and I hate every fibre of your being."

Jethro hung up the phone and put it down on the table. Then he sighed, made a sour face, picked up the phone, and called ' _Supreme Douchecanoe_ ' again.

"Sorry, Smelly. I know you're trying real hard," he said. "I'm trying too. What the fuck, no, you didn't help me with my book, I am not writing a book. I don't give a fuck if you'd read it, there is no book. But seriously, though, you've helped. You've helped, like, a lot. Oh, for fuck's sake, there's no book, you freak, goodbye."

Jethro groaned, hung up the phone, picked up his BLT, and shoved half of it into his mouth.

"You owe me," Jethro said, talking with his mouth full and jabbing his finger at Red. "You made me call Lord Commander Anal Retentive. I hate that guy. I hate that guy with a _vengeance_."

"Who is he?" Red asked.

"He's - uh, estranged family. Sort of. I think I'm the estranged one, actually. He's my eldest brother, technically. I didn't grow up with him. He grew up in the whole Ancient House rhetoric. Totally brainwashed. I hate the hell out of him, but the evil shit can smell for days - Tiny calls him Sir Super Snout. Point is, if anyone knows how to hide a smell, it's Dickwad McGee, and holy shit do I feel like I just got schooled."

"What did he say?" Red asked, equal parts terrified and fascinated.

Jethro had already finished his sandwich. He had the unpleasant habit of talking with his mouth full. Red was finding this far less unappealing than he should.

Red pushed one of his waffles onto Jethro's plate, because there was _way_ too much food, and Jethro was halfway through his milkshake already. He wasn't exactly a small guy.

"So, a bunch of things," Jethro said. "First he'd bond an Alpha, right, because if he's got an Alpha then he can keep control of his heats - and, Jesus, he can smell where they are in their cycle, so of course he knows who's having how many heats. Spoiler alert, he's never met an Omega fresh out of heat that produces a scent."

"Out of heat? But going into heat does make a smell, doesn't it?" Red said.

"Apparently it's coming out of dormancy that makes the smell - like, if you've avoided Alphas for long enough that the whole thing shuts down, and then it starts up again, that smells. So if you keep having heats then your body doesn't go dormant, and you'll stop making any scent whatsoever, except your twilight one. And your twilight one doesn't stay on you, cause you wash it off, but it gets all over your house and your stuff, so you take it out with you and it just seeps into everything the longer you're around. But apparently snake plants purify air really well, and we should be able to get the smell out of your house and your stuff with those."

"So, what, we have to go to a garden centre?" Red asked.

"Yep," Jethro said. "We have to go find some snake plants. What the fuck, right? Oh, and, um, you need an Alpha to routinely put you into heat."

"So, back to bonding," Red said.

"Um, yeah, about that," Jethro said. "Nah. You only need to be _around_ Alphas to have heats. And here's a trick from my other brother - you don't need to be around Alphas at all. Just their sweaters."

As he said it, he shrugged off his jacket and handed it to Red.

"No bond necessary. Just wear that often enough and you'll have one."

Red already knew without a doubt that he would go into heat tonight. He had known it last night, when he had talked on the phone to Jethro. He knew it now, several times over.

"And, uh, between you and me," Jethro said. "They make a big deal about Omega scent, you know? They say stuff like overpowering and obscene and stuff, like it smells like sex, but it's just not true. Alphas stink, but Omega's like ... like apples, you know? Alpha smells like three day old unwashed gym clothes. Omegas smell nice and all, but it's not overpowering. You can only smell it at all if you're trying to track it, like a total psychopath. I was legit sniffing around at your treehouse and I didn't know it belonged to an Omega, 'cause I've never bothered learning how to track Omega smells, 'cause I'm not, you know, completely evil. If you wear my jacket, it will get you smelling nice and foul in no time, and Alphas won't bat an eye at you, they'll think you're just fresh from gym."

Red took off his jacket and put Jethro's on. It felt much too big, and it was still warm from Jethro's body heat. Red felt like he was back in high school, and he was the shy kid getting to wear the popular jock's jacket like a badge of honour. He hadn't dated in high school, but he'd been really lonely and lovesick in high school, so it made perfect sense that Jethro's jacket was doing weird things to his internal organs. His stomach felt like it was trying to move to a different suburb and his heart felt like it was rocking out to speed metal.

"So, like, keep me on speed dial, yeah?" Jethro said. "If you get Alpha company, tell them you're promised - tell them you're promised to Jethro Fielder. That might make them take a minute to think. Alphas are possessive little shits and if they know another Alpha will come after them if they touch you, they'll take a minute to think about it. If they don't take a minute to think about it, tell them your lawyer's name is Ren Tolphoy. That usually shuts people right up. It's actually legitimately awesome, how fast that shuts people up."

"Tolphoy? Like, the Ancient House Tolphoys?" Red asked, but he already knew.

Ren Tolphoy was the kidnapping lawyer.

"Yeah. There's, like, thirty cousins rocking around somewhere. Ren knows them all. I've only met a few, _total cunts_ , the lot of them."

"I was told to avoid the Ancient Houses," Red said quietly.

"You damn well should," Jethro said. "That whole community is toxic."

"If a Tolphoy lives near here, I should move," Red said. "That's what I've been told. You hear the name, you pick up and move on."

"Ren doesn't live here," Jethro said. "He lives in an eight bedroom mansion out in the country. Seriously. It's, like, the worst. It has a marble staircase."

"You said he was your brother," Red said. His voice broke halfway through.

"Oh, no, no-no-no," Jethro said. "I'm not a Tolphoy, I'm a Mum Law kid. I'm a _Fielder_. I even changed my name, because I loved one of my fosters - she was a great lady, she used to make a mean spaghetti, I think she used a different kind of onion in it, there were green bits - oh, that's probably not important right now, anyway. It's a super sad story, really - well, not the spaghetti, the spaghetti's a great story - the whole foster stuff situation is the sad story. It's not the sort of thing I want to lump on you. I was raised in foster care and I only know Ren at all because Dane makes me, and trust me, I'm not happy about that. Ren's not - he's not the worst of them, but he hasn't bonded yet, so I dunno what he'd be like to an Omega. I mean, we're _technically_ brothers, but like, not really? I'm not a Tolphoy. I'm, like, Tolphoy scraps."

Red fiddled with his fingernails. "I don't think you're a scrap," he said faintly.

Jethro gave him a hesitant smile. Red had expected it to be a small smile, he'd even hoped that it might be meaningful. Instead, it just grew and grew until it was huge and toothy and rather embarrassing for Jethro.

Jethro wiped a fake tear off his eye and put a hand over his heart. "That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me," he said mockingly, but the huge grin did not fade.

It stayed when Jethro rather obtusely paid for Red's breakfast, and it stayed all through the car ride home.

Mum was sitting on the porch, cradling her phone. She looked like she'd been crying.

"Jeesh," Jethro said. "Wish I could make people cry with a text. Last time I tried, Dickhead threw his phone at me."

Red got out of the car. Jethro rolled down the window. "Thank you," Red said, grateful and flabbergasted. This was not at all how he had expected things to go.

Jethro shook his head. "Thank me later," he said, and drove away, only to return an hour later with a car full to the brim of snake plants.

"You shouldn't've done this," Mum said. "Let me pay you back, at least."

"Nah," Jethro said. "Next time you get stabbed and left to die, you can buy the pot plants, but until then, it's on me. Wow, I think that might have been a brand new sentence. Nobody's ever said that one before, probably."

Red filled his bunker with plants. Mum washed everything in the house, even the curtains. Between loads, she went to town and hired a carpet shampooer to rinse out the carpet.

That night, Red went into the least unpleasant heat he'd ever had. He was the most coherent he had ever been while he purposefully built a nest of pillows, blankets, his mother's old stuffed tiger toy, and his father's favourite scarf. He didn't take Jethro's jacket off until the last moment, but when he did, he laid it carefully over his pillow, where he would have its scent right next to his nose.

He didn't dream of Jethro, not like he'd dreamed of Plait Man, Double Shot Long Black Man, and Latte Man. He didn't dream of Jethro's hands opening him up. He didn't dream of Jethro's huge, toothy grin. He didn't dream about plucking a whole brownie out of a milkshake and handfeeding it to Jethro. He didn't dream of Jethro's cock, he didn't dream of Jethro's knot.

He didn't dream at all. He fantasized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today’s tropes:
> 
> !That Bitch Of An Author That Just Conned You Into Reading 30k Of Prologue  
> !Not Like Other Alphas (he’s terrible at this alpha thing srsly)  
> !Young People Going On Milkshake Dates  
> !Way Too Many Nicknames  
> !When The Hot Jock Gives You His Jacket  
> !He’s A Good Boy From A Bad Family  
> !That’s The Nicest Thing Anyone’s Ever Said To Me  
> !Brand New Sentence  
> !The Fic That Wasn’t Quite What You Wanted (nobody reads ABO and doesn’t want/expect there to be bonding, kidnapping, consent issues and messy knotting smut at the end. Instead I gave you 30k of build-up to a milkshake date)
> 
> Part 2 of How To Train Your Omega is in the works. It is sitting at another 140k words and needing more, but currently being a little bit hammered by RL and other projects. Expect a little downtime between this and then :(  
> You’ll see more of Red and Jethro, and meet a bunch of new people too. As for the tropes? We’ve barely gotten started. It’s going to get so much worse. And after all this, I owe you guys a kidnapping and a boning. Err. *Bonding.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on Twitter sometimes: [@MarieMaea](https://twitter.com/mariemaea)  
> Occasionally I post unpolished or unfinished stuff on Tumblr: <https://mariemaea.tumblr.com/>


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